Tumblr and Posterous showed the world that making blogging simpler makes it more accessible. Both make also make it really easy to publish from your phone. Now Zapd, a new service from Seattle startup Pressplane, wants to take it one step further and let you create websites right from your phone.
Zapd is an iPhone app that lets you create a themed, well-designed, mobile-friendly website in 60 seconds. You pick a theme, snap a photo, add a caption, and if you want you can even write a little text (don’t strain yourself). When you publish the site or a new entry, you can share a short URL with your friends via Twitter, Facebook, or email. (You can also sign in with your Facebook ID). I tried it and it literally took me a few minutes to create these two sites, Seeking and The Truth. → Read More
Apple has just announced the availability of tickets to WWDC 2011 on June 6-10 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Nothing new here – this has been happening this way since time immemorial. However, what’s interesting is the focus on software in the announcement text. → Read More
Yamaha Motors announced [JP] they have made a small step in improving one of the weak points in e-bikes today: the batteries. The company’s newly developed 25.2V/8.1Ah lithium-ion battery doubles the number of discharge/charge cycles of the electric bicycles and has just been added to the Yamaha PAS series. → Read More
Exclusive - There’s a ton of daily deal sites out there, and we’ve seen a bunch of daily deal aggregators pop up in the past few months, too. Today sees the launch of yet another one of those, dubbed Shoparatti.
A ‘one-stop destination for busy online shoppers’, Shoparatti’s claim to fame is its semi-famous editor-in-chief Melissa Rivers, daughter of comedian and actress Joan Rivers. → Read More
While this watch dial in action looks like a miniature aerial view of an amusement park, something is actually going on – this isn’t all for show. With the reference EQWM1100DC-1A2 Edifice “Black Label” watch, Casio wanted to turn all of the functions present in most of its better digital watches in a analog stage show. To be honest I never thought such a thing could be done, even though Casio has been experimenting with making sophisticated digital functions in analog format for a while. Tag Heuer was getting all hot on themselves for putting a mechanical analog 1/100th of a second movement in their $50,000 Carrera Mikrograph watch, and here Casio has a 1/1000th of a second analog chronograph in their $500 quartz watch. Frankly I like the looks of this Casio a bit better. → Read More
Before reading the following post, I suggest you make peace with your Maker because it’s so intense you may just explode in ecstasy. Are you ready? I mean, really, ask yourself: are you ready? I don’t think you’re ready because you couldn’t possibly be ready. Well, OK, maybe you are ready. Let’s hope so. Ready? Here we go: Nokia is using a new font. → Read More
Every few months Google embraces another CE company. It began with HTC and G1, giving that manufacturer resources and manpower enough to produce a powerful entrant in the smartphone race. It continued with Motorola for the Droid and has cycled through to Samsung for a brief period. This bear hug essentially gives the manufacturer access to Google’s engineers and pre-release code and leaves everyone else out in the street, waiting for a software update. Now Google has set its sights on LG and, if rumor is correct, it means a Nexus S tablet is on its way from LG running a pitch perfect version of Honeycomb. It also means that anyone with a 2.x Android Tablet, the Gal Tabs included, will be severely disappointed.
Think of this action by Google as akin to training one athlete in a race to an Olympic level and then pitting her against amateurs. The amateurs could still win, but it’s going to be tough. → Read More
Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo today announced [press release in English] that LG’s 3D-capable Optimus Pad will go on sale in the country as early as this Thursday. That means that the Android 3.0 device will hit stores in Japan earlier than in the US – where it’s expected to become available on April 20. → Read More
So much for that idea. Nasa is said to be having second thoughts about whether or not it will use James Cameron-supplied 3D lenses on its Curiosity Mars rover. The rover, which is scheduled to land on Mars in 2012, was to have a pair of 3D lenses bolted onto it, lenses that would have enabled the rover to take 3D footage of the planet’s surface. → Read More
McAfee, the computer security company, has issued a fresh warning to the world’s corporations and other large organizations. The firm has warned that hackers now have these bodies fully in their sights, and that a combination of the de-centralization of the workplace (thanks to to proliferation of mobile devices and the like) and the move to the cloud means in-house security technicians have their work cut out for them. And since there’s a market out there for stolen corporate secrets, you can bet that the bad guys aren’t going to stop anytime soon. → Read More
eBay has just announced that it has agreed to buy GSI Commerce, a provider of ecommerce and interactive marketing services, for $29.25 a share, or total consideration of approximately $2.4 billion. The acquisition, which will be financed with cash and debt, is expected to close in Q3 2011.
With more than 180 customers across 14 merchandise categories, GSI has long-term commerce services relationships with a wealth of retailers and brands. eBay says it expects GSI clients to benefit from eBay’s Marketplaces and PayPal services, particularly. → Read More
As we wrote a few weeks ago, Zynga launched a campaign with Save The Children to raise money via in-game donations in Zynga games like FrontierVille, FarmVille and CityVille for the relief efforts in Japan following the massive earthquake and tsunami a few weeks ago. Today, the social gaming giant is announcing that Lady Gaga has donated $750,000, through the sales of her Japan Prayer Bracelets, to Zynga’s fundraising initiative. She is also donating another $750,000 to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts in Japan.
And in the past two weeks, Zynga players alone have raised more than $2.5 million for Save the Children’s Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund and other causes. In a release issued by the pop singer and Zynga, Gaga said “I’m inspired that my little monsters banded together to help those affected by the terrible tragedy…What Zynga’s players have done for the cause is equally inspiring, and I’m thrilled to partner with them to raise money that will go to Save the Children and the American Red Cross.” → Read More
Exclusive - Upstream Commerce, a provider of a cloud-based, automated competitive pricing and product analytics solution for online retailers not to be confused with mobile marketing solutions company Upstream Systems, has raised $1.25 million in funding from YL Ventures, TechCrunch has learned.
The company basically helps online retailers proactively adjust product pricing to the most appropriate levels based on market conditions. → Read More
Wireless LAN company Aerohive Networks has raised $25 million in Series D financing led by New Enterprise Associates with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Northern Light Venture Capital participating in the round. This brings Aerohive’s total funding to $70 million.
Founded in 2006, Aerohive Networks offers cloud-enabled, distributed Wi-Fi and routing products for enterprises and medium sized companies. Aerohive says that its controller-less Wi-Fi and cloud-based networking saves money for companies and provides better application performance. → Read More
So much for all of that fancy talk about the return of Kers. The system, which is about as close as you can get to using a mushroom in Mario Kart in real life, lets Formula One drivers temporarily get an additional 80 horsepower out of their engine, made its return to Formula One this season. There was plenty of talk along the lines of, “This is great! It will help with overtaking and make for more exciting races.” Well well! The winning team at yesterday’s Australian Grand Prix (the first race of the season, owing to civil unrest in Bahrain) didn’t even bother using the thing. Funny. → Read More
As group texting apps like GroupMe gain popularity, people are using them to create ad hoc, private social networks among a handful of friends. But wherever people congregate online or through their mobile phones, brands will want to talk to them. Today, GroupMe is opening up its group chat to brands in what is the first hint at it business model: Featured Groups.
Brands can create their own featured groups, which will show up as suggested conversation topics. When you and your friends create a group around those topics, they work like regular GroupMe chats, except you’ve also opted in to receive messages from the brand. These may include news, offers, marketing messages, or even VIP appearances by celebrities in your GroupMe chat. The first partners to take advantage of the new feature are Oxygen Media, MTV, Bon Jovi, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and Coachella. Oxygen will be creating suggested topics around its TV shows “Bad Girls Club” and the upcoming Paris Hilton show “The World According To Paris.” MTV is using it for “America’s Best Dance Crew.” → Read More
CertiVox, a startup that develops information security infrastructure-as-a-service, has raised $1,460,000 in Series A funding led by Pentech Ventures with Octopus Investments participating.
CertiVox is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) company that provides on-demand encryption key generation, management and content distribution for the cloud. Companies can use CertiVox to secure email and transferred files, prevent data leaks, implement digital rights management, and launch comprehensive audit controls over secure information exchanges. → Read More
Apple this morning announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 6 through June 10 at San Francisco’s Moscone West.
The company promises to “unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS”, demo a bunch of applications and host more than 100 technical sessions (presented by Apple engineers).
(Update: site is now up – tickets here for $1,599 each). → Read More
Following in the footsteps of rival Visa, American Express this morning announced a digital payment and commerce platform dubbed Serve, enabling U.S. consumers to make purchases and person-to-person payments online, via mobile phones and at AmEx’s network of millions of merchants.
Serve integrates a variety of payment options into a single account that can be funded from a bank account, debit, credit or charge card, or by receiving money from another Serve account. The platform is available immediately to anyone in the U.S. and is expected to launch into other international markets over the coming year. → Read More
Atomic clock radio signal syncing watches are so last year. Citizen just decimated the coolness factor of those watches with the Satellite Eco-Drive watch. This timepiece isn’t just a concept, but will actually be produced as a limited edition later this year – and may have its tech show up in later watches. In a nutshell, the watch keeps its time super accurate from syncing with the navigational satellites that orbit Earth as opposed to syncing with radio signals that are broadcasted from local atomic clocks. → Read More
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