Spil Games, the casual gaming portal, has unveiled a new logo, err, “brand identity”. The revamp includes a redesigned corporate website and the drawing up of the Dutch company’s manifesto, which contains bold statements like “We play … by our own rules.”
But I shouldn’t mock, the “corporate rebrand” is a big deal to Spil Games apparently. The new site features dedicated sections for the company’s products, advertisers, developers, and publishers along with feeds for news, events, and job openings. That’s playing by your own rules alright.
The freshly inked Spil Games manifesto also contains such wonders as: → Read More
Based on my lengthy explorations through all depths of the Internets, I’m quite comfortable in saying that their probably aren’t too many people out there looking to make their iPhone look more like a Windows Phone 7 phone. But if, somehow, there is some massive horde out there all clamoring for a WP7-themed overhaul, let them know: it’s here. And it’s actually… pretty dang impressive. You’ll need to jailbreak the phone and install the theme via Cydia — but then you’re free to go about your way, installing WP7-themes on iPhones, singing to cats, eating paint chips, and whatever other crazy things you might do. → Read More
The Apple Xserve is at the end of its life. Today’s the last day you can pick one up directly from Apple.com. Sorry, everyone. There’s cake in the break room and you’re going to have to look elsewhere for your Apple rackmounted solutions — or throw the $999 Mac mini Snow Leopard Server on table and hook up a couple of external hard drives. → Read More
How much good will Twitter and Facebook do your revolution once the government completely shuts down Internet access? “Not much good” is the correct answer. (Can something similar happen here in the U.S.?) That’s why it’s high time we pay homage to some of the old technology that’s really making this Egyptian situation tick: ham radio, fax machines, and good ol’ fashioned dial-up modems. Remember those? → Read More
Short version: The GoBiz i-Microphone is not a complete cure for your smartphone’s mic, but it’s a pretty cheap way to get better recordings. → Read More
As part of the launch of Startup America, a national campaign to “celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship in the U.S.”; Facebook has announced a new initiative called ‘Startup Days.’
Facebook will hold 12 monthly Startup Days in 2011 to “provide early-stage companies with engineering and design support on the Facebook Platform.” These meetings, which will be held around the country, will provide entrepreneurs with resources to build social applications. Facebook has also announced it will continue its efforts to stay active in open source communities. → Read More
The latest leak suggests the Motorola Atrix 4G dock will set you back a mere $60. That puts the cost of the phone itself and its mightily impressive dock at just over $200. Not a bad deal, particularly for something that won our highly coveted Best of CES award. → Read More
Do you remember the embarrassingly ugly and uncool Chinese copy of the awesome Gundam statue Bandai erected in Tokyo and later in Shizuoka? The rip-off caused such a splash that mass media in Japan (and the world) started reporting about it, which then made the Chinese theme park responsible remove their statue for a while. → Read More
Facebook is today launching ‘Places Deals’ in the UK and Europe. Facebook users will be able to get discounts and special deals in shops, cafes and restaurants by checking in on Facebook Places on their smartphone.
We’re live broadcasting the press conference above.
The Telegraph broke an early story on this this morning.
‘Places Deals’ launched in the US last November with Macys, Gap and Starbucks.
European partners will be: Starbucks, Yo Sushi, Mazda (Mazda 20% off an MX5), O2, Argos, Debenhams, Alton Towers and Benetton.
Live now in Germany, France, Italy, Spain. → Read More
Google’s Q4 lobbying spend is in; and the search giant continues to spend more money on influencing policy and lawmakers than in previous years. In the fourth quarter of 2010, Google spent $1.24 million on lobbying, which is up from $1.12 million in the same quarter in 2010. In total, Google spent $5.16 million on lobbying efforts in 2010, which is up from $4 million in 2009. You can find the reports from the U.S. Senate’s lobbying database here.
For Google, this quarter’s lobbying efforts were slightly higher than Q3′s spending ($1.2 million) but lower than Q2′s lobbying bill ($1.34 million), and Q1′s spend ($1.38 million). In the fourth quarter of 2010, Google’s lobbying strategy for this quarter focused on online advertising regulation including privacy and competition issues, patent reform, cyber security and online privacy, renewable energy, freedom of expression and censorship, tax reform, free trade, Congressional Internet service usage rules and broadband access. → Read More
This latest iPhone 5 rumor seems to have come completely out of left field, but that’s partially what makes it exciting. How does a 3D screen grab you? Do you respond with “Oh, wow, awesome!” or is it more along the lines of “Er, what?” No answer is wrong. → Read More
A quick “this exists” for your Monday morning. It’s a Nintendo 3DS Starter Kit, from Icon. The $20 kit contains a number of items to make your 3DS-ing all the more pleasurable come March 27 when the system is released. Rumor has it you’ll find a copy of Fernando Torres’ transfer request in there! (No you won’t.) → Read More
Note from the editor: This is a guest post from Aneesh Chopra, United States Chief Technology Officer.
During last week’s State of the Union address, President Obama challenged the Nation to out-educate, out-innovate, and out-build our competition to win the future.
A critical ingredient in this endeavor is the creative spirit of the American entrepreneur that featured prominently in the President’s Strategy for American Innovation – a framework for long-term economic growth and sustainable job creation.
Today, President Obama celebrated the launch of Startup America, a national (public/private) campaign to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship across all corners of the country, and the formation of the Startup America Partnership to catalyze private support for entrepreneurial ecosystems. → Read More
Sure you can build little houses and stuff with Lego, but can you build a sniper rifle? Lego for Adults author Martin Martin Hüdepohl wants to show you how in his book Badass Lego Guns. This video teaser shows some of the amazing shooting creations that actually work and are made entirely of LEGO Technic parts. → Read More
In the same events planning space as Plancast and Upcoming, Y Combinator-funded Lanyrd launches today after this weekend’s game changing news of Yuri Milner and SV Angel’s 150K investment in every Y Combinator startup. An IMDB for conferences, Lanyrd has the ambitious goal of becoming the one stop shop for all conference data by pulling in information from the Twitter accounts that you follow.
At first glance Lanyrd is pretty comprehensive. Whether past or future event, a Lanyrd conference page shows you a list of speakers, attendees, and trackers and their respective Twitter accounts as well as a list of sessions, a link to the actual conference page itself, the ability to save the event to iCal and Outlook, a link to coverage, separation by topic, related books, as well as permalink page which enables you to share the Lanyrd conference page with your friends (Whew!). → Read More
I’ve talked to a dozen startups in the last month who are trying again to crack the tricky problem of reducing who you are personally and professionally to a reputation score that can’t be gamed and isn’t just a outlet for trolls and haters. I’m not convinced it can be done, as I argued with Klout’s Joe Fernandez, and beyond that I’m not convinced it should be done. Social media has already given plenty of people an unhealthy obsession with measuring their self-worth in friends, followers and retweets. Anyone who faces a mob of angry commenters for every word they blog knows the truth: The Internet is too big to take even a large number of haters too seriously. Even hundreds of comments saying “YOUR AN IDITO!” are still just a tiny angry minority, who just wants to be heard.
But there are some instances where getting closer to capturing reputation online could help solve real world problems, and most are in the professional sphere. After all, I don’t have to care what a guy on the street thinks about me, but if that guy on the street is friends with the hiring manager for my dream job, suddenly his opinion becomes hugely relevant to my life. The workplace is the one place where people’s opinions of you actually matter. I’m actually writing about two new companies today that I think get closer to solving this problem than LinkedIn has, and might be worth the foray into the seedy world of inviting your peers to judge you. The first is Mixtent. → Read More
Say, for example, you’re a self-styled office despot. Grown men fear you, women are in awe of your power, and children cower at your feet (all of this is in your head and your co-workers actually hate you, but pay that no mind). What can you do to add that delicate touch of insanity to your already vicious reign? Desk mounted ordnance, that’s what. That’s where the $39 Brando USB Thunder Missile Launcher comes in. Sadly, these little missiles carry no payload except your dignity but they do add some wild audio effects to your already insane sense of self worth. Not only are you a god, you are also annoyingly armed. → Read More
Power-One, Inc. (NASDAQ:PWER) — a large manufacturer of power inverters for the renewable energy industry and provider of software to manage power harvesting and distribution — opened its first North American manufacturing facility in Phoenix today, where they plan to employ 350 people full-time.
According to a company press statement, the facility will primarily produce photovoltaic and wind inverters that convert renewable energy into a usable form of electricity for distribution on the utility grid. The chief executive of Power-One, Richard J. Thompson, explained ahead of the facility’s opening ceremony on Monday… → Read More
Digital publishing company LibreDigital (formerly known as NewsStand, Inc.) has secured $4 million in debt funding, the company announced this morning (an SEC filing shows they had recently raised $1.3 million for the round).
LibreDigital last raised money back in May 2010, securing $8 million in funding – its total now stands at roughly $31 million. → Read More
What’s the first thing you think when you hear the word “focus.” You might respond, “camera,” or “cheap car,” or “concentration,” but definitely not, “fun,” “technological,” or “practical.” This will likely change in a second because those are the words I’d use to tentatively describe this year’s Ford Focus, a small, sporty car for just about everybody. More Americans are ditching their gas-guzzling SUVs and heading straight for the small car market. From a marketing standpoint, Ford’s approach to selling a small car to people is by offering all the features found in their larger vehicles, but in a smaller package. No longer do people have to feel ashamed for “cheaping out” and getting a Focus, instead, it’s simply a lifestyle choice. Why should the choice take out all the fun of owning a car? I got a chance to drive the new 2012 Ford Focus last week in LA. Those in the area know the hills overtop the city feature some of the most entertaining roads in the country. → Read More
