Nextag, a comparison shopping site for products and services, has acquired Germany’s Guenstiger.de GmbH, one of the largest comparison shopping services in Europe. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but the company says acquisition marks the most significant strategic transaction for Nextag to date. The deal was a mixture of cash and stock.
Guenstiger provides shoppers in six countries with a comprehensive comparison shopping site that includes reviews, recommendations, and local product availability, to help users make easy and informed purchases. Guenstiger will maintain its brands and will continue to be led by its current management team. → Read More
You look bored. How ’bout wasting your day on this scale model of our little solar system. With the sun at 560 pixels wide, that puts the whole web page at about 1/2 mile long. Now remember, don’t scrub the scroll bar and cheat, just turn on auto-scroll and let the universe fly by. → Read More
After a brief hiatus, Why Is This News? is back! In this week’s episode, Paul checks in from his Las Vegas hotel room to discuss Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s plans to regenerate downtown Las Vegas by moving the company’s HQ into the former City Hall.
In fact, there’s far more to Hsieh’s plan than that, as Paul explained over on the Huffington Post. In the video below, Paul waxes lyrical about Hsieh’s plans, while Sarah plays devil’s advocate, asking why Hsieh and Zappos will succeed where so many bigger companies – Google, Yahoo et al – have failed. → Read More
Tweetdeck has release a new version 2.0 of its app for the iPhone. They are calling it a ‘Hollywood-esque “re-imagining” where the essence of the original remains but it’s brought up to date. It’s taken “several months of feverish work”.
Imporved features include swiping between columns, navigation through user profiles and the ability to add columns as well as ‘Pull to Update’ and Follow/Unfollow sliders tweaks.
A pinch gesture on a column accesses options to add any combination of feeds into a column so that Twitter timelines, Mentions, DMs Favourites, Lists, Searches, Facebook feeds can be blended into a personalised column
You can download the iPhone TweetDeck v2 from the AppStore here. → Read More
Cloud Girlfriend, service that created a lot of buzz by promising users that it could create the perfect girlfriend by setting up dummy profiles that would write on your Facebook wall and fool your friends into thinking you had a social life, has launched to the public today. However the site is not what it was originally conceived to be.
Described by founder David Fuhriman as a combination of Match.com and Second Life, the new Cloud Girlfriends lets your flirt either as yourself or a fantasy character setting up Chat Dates with others who also are role playing, or not. → Read More
Time for your daily dose of iPhone rumors. This one comes by way of AppleInsider that picked up a story published by the Japanese newspaper Nikkan that states Sharp will manufacturer the screens for the iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 name is important to note as it is not the so-called iPhone 4S rumored for sometime this year, but rather the true next-gen iPhone. → Read More
As we all know, long distance runners are lonely. You’re out there on your own, feet hitting the pavement, strange birds pecking at your hair as you scramble up and down alien streets at dawn or dusk. It’s good to have friends out there. That’s the goal of this new iPhone app, called Runens, a goal that, I feel, so far falls short. You set a goal level – 5K, 10K, Ultramarathon – and then “share” your runs with with the app. It ranks you according to miles run and speed and you can have “hood fights” which are battles between neighborhoods. The goal of this app is similar to JoggingBuddy.com’ – essentially the socialization of a usually stoic, solitary endeavor – but, obviously, this thing is app-based and is, thus far, a bit barren in the social aspect. → Read More
Google recently commissioned a survey (in partnership with market research firm Ipsos OTX) to gain insight into the usage and behavior of U.S. consumers with regard to their smartphones. According to Google, the goal of the research was to understand how smartphones are used in consumer’s daily lives and specifically how it has influenced how consumers search, shop and respond to mobile advertising.
The study confirms what most of us already know. The report finds that in terms of general usage, 93% of smartphone users use their phones at home; 81% browse the Internet and 77% search on their phones, 72% of smartphone users use their phones while consuming other media. One-third of smartphone owners use their phones while watching TV. And 45% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help them to manage and plan activities, such as for dinner plans, travel arrangements and finances. Google says that 39% admit to having used their smarpthone while going to the bathroom and one in five users would give up their Cable TV in order to keep using their smartphones. → Read More
There are some electronics that are totally worth fixing yourself. Most modern electronics aren’t, though. But you still do it anyway for shits and giggles. Then there are DSLRs — or in this case, the new Nikon D5100. You’d have to be John Biggs-crazy to tear this thing apart. → Read More
As yesterday’s reports of YouTube’s expanded Hollywood partnerships are still making waves, we’re hearing that Twentieth Century Fox will also be making a deal with YouTube to license its movies for YouTube Movies.
Fox will be joining Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Universal in the initiative, as well as independent studios Lionsgate and Kino Lorber. While there’s still no word on Paramount and Disney, the service now has enough critical mass to launch.
Fox notably blocked Google TV back in November, so this deal would be a change of tune for the studio in its dealings with Google. Having as many major studios on board for this initiative is crucial, as it means the difference between having inventory that people want to watch and being stuck with Ronald Reagan: An American Journey. → Read More
Come on, own up. Everyone secretly wants to be able to type like a hacker, accessing secret information, screwing up the company invoicing system to re-direct incoming cash into your bank account. That kind of thing. Now you can, on this handy web site. Just start typing, and voila! You too can impress work colleagues and love interests alike… → Read More
When we covered Tokyo-based Minebea’s so-called COOL LEAF keyboard in March last year, we said that Minebea was “considering” to commercialize the beautiful flat input device at some point in the future. Fast forward 13 months, and we have a press release (in English) in which the company says the keyboard will actually be rolled out in Japan on May 13. → Read More
It’s hard out there for a writer of genre fiction. You rarely get much respect in the “literary” circles and even though some of the greats – Jonathan Lethem, for example – started out writing what would be termed sci-fi and fantasy, we forget this as they bring out massive magna opera about Park Slope and love. Besides, vampire books are huge moneymakers right now and why not ride that train until it derails on a Transylvanian mountain pass?
And so we have Book Country, a site run by Penguin that offers a free way for writers of genre fiction to talk about and share their work. The site is limited to romance, thrillers, fantasy, and sci-fi so this is not the spot to upload your Mythbusters slashfic. However, it is a fairly robust service that attempts to keep things fair for all involved. → Read More
Forget Sony’s S1 and S2 for a hot minute. Sony also revealed a more traditional product line for the firm: The Freestyle Hybrid PC and the Ultimate Mobile PC. Akihabara News notes they’re “scheduled to come anytime soon.” They’re said to run on an Intel Atom platform, which means Windows is likely the OS, and the Ultimate Mobile PC sports a 13.3-inch screen. But that’s all that’s known right now. One look at the device and you know it’s a Sony with the sharp lines, monochrome color scheme, and innovative form factor. → Read More
One of my fondest childhood memories was of visiting the Tid-Bit in Martins Ferry, Ohio and buying out their old collection of chemistry set chemicals for 60 cents each. I bought the fun stuff like sulfur, copper, iron filings, and potassium nitrate (charcoal I could make at home) and some off the odd stuff like Cobalt Chloride that I just loved to look at for the color. I learned very little from my “experiments” except how to make bright flames (my dad never let me pack the things I made so I couldn’t blow anything up) but I did learn a healthy respect for chemistry and chemicals. My dad understood that chemistry sets were, on the aggregate, harmless but in this ever-litigious world in which we live, that understanding is quickly being supplanted by the belief that kids are demons waiting for a chance to blow up a truck and head off to Gitmo. To wit: this chemistry set without chemicals. → Read More
People love photo albums, but they hate making them.
That’s what Blake Williams has come to realize in the months following Keepsy’s launch. You may recall back in December of last year, the startup launched as a way to create tangible photo albums with all of your friends using Facebook. It’s a good idea. But again, there’s a barrier to entry. So now Keepsy has a new product to alleviate that problem.
“Instant Albums” hooks into your Instagram pictures via their API and in seconds build you a complete photo album. Once you give them your Instagram credentials, Keepsy pulls in what it considers to be your 35 (or so) best pictures and organizes them for you into this book. → Read More
San Diego based BrightScope, which launched to help people navigate their 401k retirement plans and maximize benefits, wants to help consumers find the best financial advisor and planner.
The startup is launching Advisor Pages, a way for people to discover, research, and select the most appropriate and qualified financial advisor. BrightScope has aggregated hard-to-discover but publicly available information on advisors, creating a database of over 450,000 financial advisors around the U.S. → Read More
Sales Manager: Where’s Paul? He’s the only one who knows how to paste in the fake images onto devices in the catalog. Intern: He’s at lunch. I can try. I know Photoshop. Sales Manager: No, you’re an intern. I’ll do it. What is this thing? A tablet? Intern: Yeah, but… Sales Manager: Go take pictures of those USB thingers that just came in. Let me concentrate. And get me a latte. via MacMall via Eng → Read More
What’s almost as important as sturdy touchscreens? Thin touchscreens, and Tokyo-based Asahi Glass can now claim the bragging rights for having developed [press release in English, PDF] the world’s thinnest soda-lime glass substrate for touchscreens. In other words, we will soon be able to see thinner and lighter smartphones and tablets. → Read More
Evolv On-Demand, a startup that develops science-based, on-demand talent matching and intelligence software, has raised $15.75 million in Series C funding, led by GGV Capital with Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners participating in the round. This investment brings the total capital raised by the company to $27.5 million.
Evolv’s Talent Matching and Talent Intelligence software is used by recruiters and employers to match the best job applicants to various job types based upon factors such as behaviors, skills, motivation and workstyle. Evolv claims that its SaaS platform reduces employee attrition by 20-30%, improves hourly employee productivity metrics by 5-10%, and helps improve annual operating margins by over 20%. → Read More
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