Got Angry Birds Fever (I guess calling it “Angry Bird Flu” might be a bad idea), but can’t muster up the energy to build a man-sized Angry Birds costume? Want something a bit more portable? Don’t fret. We’ve known for a while now that Rovio Mobile was working on a line of plush toys based on their ever-frustrated Birds. Hell, we’ve seen the things a bunch of times. Unfortunately, the company has stayed pretty much mum on the matter of pricing and availability, leaving would-be buyers in the dark with Christmas fast approaching. A tipster has just come forward with some details on the launch. According to them, Rovio has plans to make their official unveiling tomorrow.. but that hasn’t stopped at least one toy store from putting it up early. → Read More
Microsoft just released better than expected Q1 earnings, posting first-quarter revenue of $16.2 billion, an 25% increase from the same period of the prior year. Analysts expected revenue to come in at $15.8 billion. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $7.12 billion, $5.41 billion and $0.62 per share, which represented increases of 59%, 51% and 55%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period. Analysts were expecting diluted earnings per share of $0.55.
Microsoft said that the company saw year-over-year growth across all business segments. Revenue from Office 2010 grew over 15% in its first full quarter in market. The entertainment division saw strong growth as Xbox 360 console sales increased by 38%. The biggest growth came from Windows, with revenue up 66% to $4.8 billion. Windows operating profits up 124% to $3.2 billion (from $1.5 billion last year) and Windows Azure subscriptions grew by 40%. → Read More
Google has just released a series of updates for their Google Maps Android application. Two of these updates are useful: Place page reviews and the ability to filter search results. But one of them is really interesting: real-time location updating in Google Latitude.
To be clear, this feature is an experimental one that Google is trying out. But if you enable it, your friends on the service will be able to see where you are in real-time (and vice versa, if they enable it too). Previously, location updates through Latitude would occur regularly, but not in real-time. The reason is that this constant sending of location data can wear down mobile phone batteries much quicker. Many service that update location in the background instead tend to ping towers to see if you’ve moved periodically. → Read More
Rockabox Media has secured an undisclosed Series A round from Frog Capital to enhance its Shutters video technology and Viewshare online content distribution platform. The new funding will also see Frog Capital Partner, Mike Reid, join the Rockabox Media board.
Founded in 2008 by technology entrepreneur James Booth and TV executive Torie Chilcott, Rockabox, described as a new breed of cross-media IP-creation and exploitation business, creates and delivers “engaging cross-media entertainment formats” that are supported by the company’s marketing methodology and technology platform. → Read More
Ready for this? Unisex Gucci glasses optimized for RealD 3D productions. They’re stylish (so they say), coated with a high-tech multi-layered mirrored coating and are optically correct with a 6-base curved lense complete with circular polarization. $225 and available this holiday season. Because, you know, going to the movies isn’t expensive enough. → Read More
YouTube has just announced that it has served its 500 millionth promoted video view. The video ad format, which the company launched a few years ago, essentially allows advertisers pay to promote videos in search results and on the YouTube home page.
The product is similar to an AdWords for YouTube. So advertisers buy a keyword, and when someone did a search for that term, the advertiser’s video will show up as a promoted result. Last year, YouTube also started to place Promoted Videos on the ‘Watch’ pages, where videos are actually shown alongside comments and related other content, replicating AdSense in some ways. → Read More
Though they’re the 6th largest carrier in the US, U.S. Cellular isn’t really known for offering brand spankin’ new mobile technology. They’ve always had plenty of phones, mind you — they just tended to go for phones that were perhaps a bit older, or a bit less flashy. That all started to change back in April, when U.S. Cellular announced that they were getting the HTC Desire. Months later, they kicked things up a notch again with their own Samsung Galaxy S variant, the Mesmerize — and now it looks like they’re going to try to ride the cutting edge with the latest and greatest trend: Tablets. Their first? The Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab. → Read More
The Parents Television Council, parodied by WWE with its Right to Censor stable back in the day, says that 19 percent of kids between the ages of 12 and 16 are able to buy M-rated video games at stores. Shock! → Read More
A quick disclosure: readers of my last book will be familiar with the story (which you can read here) of London-based entrepreneur Michael Acton Smith.
Smith co-founded boy’s toys e-tailer Firebox.com straight out of university, before moving on to launch an interactive puzzle start-up called Mind Candy. By the end of the book, Mind Candy had gained success with its ambitious Perplexcity alternative reality game (ARG) but hadn’t quite tipped over to the mass-market.
Michael is a friend – and a fellow Brit – so, obviously, I was really rooting for the company to deliver on its potential. I was one of the first to write about Mind Candy when I was at the Guardian and I promised that, when the company finally tipped, I’d be the first to write a follow up.
And yet… → Read More
Busuu.com, the language learning community, is partnering with British publisher Collins to offer a range of grammar guides.
It represents the second traditional publisher tie-up for Madrid-based busuu following a similar arrangement with PONS Publishing Group, the second biggest publisher in Germany as part of the Klett Group. It’s also interesting as Collins already has a partnership with busuu’s much better funded and US-based rival livemocha.com ($14m vs approx. $1.4m), suggesting, perhaps, that busuu is punching above its weight. → Read More
Remember several months ago when both Google and Facebook decided to get into the URL shortening game? We wondered if Bit.ly, the market leader, was fu.kd? And we were hardly alone.
But nearly a year later, it seems like they’re doing more than fine as neither Facebook nor Google seemed to take their shortener too seriously for much of that time. It was only just about a month ago that Google opened up their goo.gl product to more directly compete with Bit.ly. But it looks like Facebook, which runs fb.me, has sort of gone the other way. They’re actually now working with Bit.ly. → Read More
We’re one month away from Thanksgiving, and therefore Black Friday, so prepare yourselves for all sorts of sales and deals. There’s probably no better time to look for games, movies, and various equipment. (I’m looking to add a discrete sound card to my PC, for example. Should I go with Asus or Creative?) Amazon’s festivities begin tomorrow, so you can expect all sorts of discounts on things like TVs, Blu-ray players, games, speakers, etc. You know: things you care about → Read More
Last month, Yahoo SVP David Ku, who headed the company’s advertising products group, left the company. Yahoo has been hemorrhaging talent lately — including some high ranking executives — and Ku was an especially big loss because he’s been with the company since 2002. Now we’ve confirmed Ku’s next move: he’s joining Microsoft as Corporate Vice President, Online Services Division New Initiatives, effective October 29th, 2010.
We initially heard that Ku would be working directly on Bing (which is part of Microsoft’s’ Online Services Division) but a Microsoft spokesperson tell us that he’ll be involved with a range of initiatives across the division. → Read More
Did you know there is a Viper remote starter out right now that can be controlled with an iPhone for $500? That seems kinda pricey and dull on extra features. What if you wanted even more control of your car, right on your iPhone’s wonderful interface? Meet AutoBot, the answer to your call. → Read More
Bathrooms.com has raised a “significant ” Series A round from Dawn Capital, the European VC firm.
The new funding, details of which aren’t being disclosed, will enable the company to “boost its growth trajectory ”, adding additional brands and ranges to enhance the product s on offer, as well as to increase its exposure in various marketing channels with an eye on expanding into “key international markets.” → Read More
Sometimes it feels that the likes of Brightcove and Ooyala, and their myriad competitors, are something of a hammer to crack a nut in the world of enterprise video platforms. To small and medium sized firms these players can appear pretty expensive and complex in their pricing, so smaller businesses often grudgingly revert to cheap or free consumer platforms like YouTube where the the constraints don’t suit enterprises. It’s a little like the days when online publishing was ruled by CMS systems like Interwoven, before platforms like Typepad and Wordpress came along. So a new video platform launches today with the aim of bringing a simpler, all-you-can-eat pricing and service package which could well attract a lot of firms.
The 23Video startup has come up with it’s own technology platform to allow companies to create a full, out-of-the-box video site, mapped to your own domain, with a branded videoplayer for $675 a month, which includes 1 Terabyte of traffic (equivalent to an average of 160,000 videos a month). Extra traffic is $250 per TB. While Ooyala offers a $500/month package, you need to contact their sales people. And the same sales process happens over at Brightcove, where your $99 / mo will get you just 50 Videos and 40 GB of bandwidth, though they do have a credit-card-driven Express option. With 23Video the process is pretty easy and cards are also accepted. → Read More
We’re just about two weeks away from the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops, and besides the fact that it’s yet another Call of Duty game (which usually means a decent multi-player mode, and a campaign of varying quality), there’s not a whole lot of “heat” surrounding it. Yes, it’s setting all sorts of pre-order records, and the critical reaction is already largely positive (PSM3 magazine calls it “2010′s top shooter” in its December issue), but there’s no real, I don’t know, excitement surrounding it. That’s my perception, at least. Could it be that Medal of Honor, with its Taliban-infused multi-player, has already exhausted this country’s supply of outrage? → Read More
With Amazon having built Kindle applications for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry, you probably could have guessed that they had plans for a Windows Phone 7 app. Sure enough: this morning, Microsoft and Amazon are announcing that the Kindle application is on the way, with an always-helpful launch date of “soon”. As far as we can tell so far, the Kindle for WP7 app will tout just about every feature that Kindle fans know and love, from automatic page syncing to the ability to purchase books right through the app. The only thing missing? A little tiny man who can convince me that reading books off a tiny screen isn’t a terrible way to read. (Ba-dum-cha!) → Read More
IK Multimedia released an update to their AmpliTube iOS app today in the iTunes App Store. We reviewed the first version of the app and its necessary iRig hardware dongle back in July. It’s a worthy and early entrant into the emerging arena for native app-based recording on touch-enabled mobile devices. Version 2 of this iOS app is a free upgrade for previous installs and offers a plethora of new features and functionality. However, not every new component is free in the upgrade. See below for the details on which ones require an additional in-app purchase. New features include: New 4-track recorder with insert effects and 3 master effects (not free) 5 new pedals/effects (not free) New speedtrainer for slowing down/speeding up backing tracks (free) Greatly improved sound with DSP now derived from desktop versions (free) Now backing tracks are imported directly from iTunes on iPhone/iPod (free) New recording export using iTunes shared folders on your computer (free) New recording sending by email (free) New preset naming (free) → Read More
The Boxee Box will hit retailers and livingrooms with in the coming weeks and because of Vudu, it will be a bit more versatile thanks to the addition of Vudu. The service provides 1080p movie streams with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound for a reasonable $2 for two nights of viewing. This isn’t your average HD-lite movie, either. It’s a high-quality stream that will probably satisfy most viewers.
Plus, seeing how it’s owned by Walmart, Vudu tends to have first run movies right away making the Boxee Box a legitimate contender in the media streamer pageant. The service should hit the platform within the coming weeks. It’s not clear if it will launch alongside the Boxee Box, but it will be available this November according to the press release. → Read More
