Online games publisher We R Interactive this morning announced that it has raised $5 million in second round funding from a slew of private investors, including Elio Leoni-Sceti, former CEO of EMI Music and Paul Fitzsimons, ex-media sector partner at Apax Partners. The company secured initial funding upon launch back in July 2010, although it’s unclear how much they raised then.
The proceeds of… → Read More
At this point, I think it’s pretty clear what Facebook’s strategy for this whole Burson-Marsteller caught-with-their-pants-down situation is going to be: say as little as possible and move on. And it will work.
Like it or not, Facebook is too integrated into the fabric of the web now for everyone to just walk away. As has been proven time and time again, people will get really angry with them for… → Read More
Samsung today revealed a new display which, at 2560×1600 and 10.1″, is far denser than any on the market right now — including the iPhone 4′s famous “Retina” display. But will the non-traditional Pentile method of rendering pixels result in something less than the mega-rez screen we’re hoping for? → Read More
Limewire has agreed to pay $105 million to record labels, after a protracted court battle in which the record companies famously estimated Limewire’s damages could reach $75 trillion. So in a way, Mark Gorton and the venerable file-sharing company are getting off easy here. Isn’t it a tacit admission of how ridiculous their arguments were that they’re accepting a fraction of a… → Read More
These laptop bags are slightly different from your average messenger or sling. Out of the box, the Unit 01 (no relation to Eva Unit 01) is essentially blank on the outside. But add on Unit 02 and/or Unit 03 (or more than one of either) to its little hook-on system and you’ve got yourself some extra storage that’s easily removable and accessible. → Read More
Former Twitter recruiter Morgan Missen is joining Foursquare today as Head of Talent for Foursquare West.
Missen (née Missentzis) was the first Technical Recruiter at Twitter responsible for all backend engineering hires. Prior to that position she was Technical Recruiter at Google for three years. Missen’s Foursquare hire is important because it solidifies the check-in service’s ongoing San… → Read More
Amazon has always been frustratingly close-lipped about its hardware business, opting not to divulge sales numbers or upcoming hardware changes for more or less the entire life of the Kindle. And incredibly, such information rarely leaks out (though we managed to catch the graphite Kindle 3 ahead of its debut). But today just two words are sending the tech blogs into confusion, as Jeff Bezos coyly… → Read More
I still have memories of playing Alien Vs Predator 2 back in college. That game was just plain great. Being a Predator was awesome, being a Xenomorph felt insane, and being a human was scary as hell. But in the many years since then, we haven’t seen much in the way of quality Alien game fare. But it looks like that’s about to change. → Read More
When it comes to publishing apps on the iPad, there are two models: 1) social readers that bring all your realtime news feeds together like Flipboard; or 2) single-title apps from major publishers like the New Yorker, The Daily or the New York Times. Those two models are also dividing along the lines of subscriptions versus ad-supported/free.
In the video above, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue makes… → Read More
Did you see that sweet new designer Dodocase this morning, the one with the Rex Ray art on it? No? Well click here then, and come back when you’re done. See, isn’t that cool? You probably want one now. And we want to give you one! Here’s how. → Read More
While the check-in started with social apps tied to location in the real world, it quickly spread to the virtual side of things, giving users the ability to check-in to watching tv/movies, listening to music, browsing websites, etc. But one area that remained largely untapped was gaming, which is surprising because it makes a lot of sense. IGN clearly agrees.
The gaming network has just entered… → Read More
Short version: A tiny camera for tiny hands. It’s a good buy for kids and young ladies who can’t spare much purse space, though of course picture quality is nothing to brag about. → Read More
Remember the Avenger gaming controller add-on thingy? Yep, there’s a new revised version and it’s available for immediate shippment. It still looks bat-shit insane, but the updated version sports tougher joints, “adhesive button extenders” and even more adjustable parts for further customization. Plus the new version comes in a jet-black rubberized finish, which is sure to… → Read More
Based on a batch of documents released in the Skyhook/Google lawsuit, it seems that Google’s Andy Rubin is not only the boss of Android, but the boss of just about everyone in the Android ecosystem. Freshly unsealed court docs reveal that Google is using Android’s compatibility standards to bully OEMs into choosing Google products for their smartphones.
Basically, anytime a manufacturer wants … → Read More
The iPod Nano may have something cool up its sleeve. This patent, discovered by PatentlyApple, describes a dynamic screensaver that will take cues from the outside environment, changing according to motion, light, and the colors around the device. → Read More
Right now there’s no such thing as a 7-inch Honeycomb tablet. There isn’t one on the market. (okay, I looked, but I just know someone is going to link to one in the comments) The Viewsonic Viewpad 7x might be the first one. Pocket-Lint heard through “reliable sources” that said tablet is in the batter’s box, ready to step up to the plate at a Taipei trade conference. → Read More
Whoa! Talk about a welcome surprise. After many long months in the works, Netflix has just pushed the first release of their Android application to the Android Market. Alas, there’s a catch: it’s only working on a handful of Android devices right now. With this first release, the only supported devices are the HTC Incredible, HTC Nexus One, HTC Evo 4G, HTC G2, and Samsung Nexus S. → Read More
Businesses today have the benefit of access to tons of data on their customers, what they’re buying, what their social behavior looks like, and more. The problem, though, is how best to funnel the fire hose of social data. Companies can now collect so much social data on their customers, it can be difficult to narrow it down to the most applicable, and useful, information that will allow them to… → Read More
Docstoc, an online document sharing site that caters primarily to small businesses and professionals, is unveiling its first mobile app today with the launch of its iPad app today—Docstoc Premium.
The iPad App, which is free, includes access to documents that are shared on the platform, including both premium and free content. Users have access to over 10,000 business and professional… → Read More
Apple just pushed out a minor firmware update for the Apple TV that addresses mainly stability issues. Among fixing problems with audio and video content, the update fixes a little bug in which YouTube videos were not displayed in proper chronological order. Download 4.2.2 in the settings menu of the Apple TV. Click through to Apple for the full release notes. → Read More
Social and mobile incubator YouWeb, who has helped create OpenFeint, CrowdStar, iSwifter and Sibblingz, is announcing its latest venture—mobile ‘edutainment’ startup Pluto Plays Music.
Pluto Plays Music is an educational game and iPad app that combines scrolling gameplay dynamics with musical notes to get the kiddies interested in learning music. The game follows the main character, Pluto, a… → Read More
When researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden announced at the Where 2.0 Conference in Santa Clara a few weeks ago that iPhones and 3G iPads are storing records of where their users are and where they’ve been, the news created quite a stir. Google also stores a similar list on Android devices, so naturally questions have swirled in the last few weeks around how both Apple and Google are… → Read More
Boutique tech investment bank Pacific Crest Securities has purchased Pacific Epoch, a Shanghai-based investment research firm specializing in technology. This gives Pacific Crest fifty more bodies on the ground in China to deliver investors better investment research than “This is the (fill-in-the-blank-Western-Internet-company) of China.”
That lazy marketing strategy has helped companies like … → Read More
Navmii, maker of Navmii GPS Live, the low-cost Sat-Nav solution for iOS, along with the free OpenStreetMap-powered NavFree, has announced that it has garnered more than 2 million users in 12 months.
But more interesting is that Navmii users have contributed over 300,000 updates to the ‘Wikipedia of maps’ OpenStreetMap project, a trend that is on course to make NavFree “as accurate as most… → Read More
Do you think Ford had something to do with this trailer? I don’t know. It’s just something about the clip featuring nothing but Fiestas — which, in its pedestrian livery, is a great car — and the massive Ford oval in the bottom right. As long as DiRT 3 is as white-knuckle awesome, the game could be sponsored by Campbell’s tomato soup for all I care. → Read More
It’s pretty rare for a story to be one part sad, one part fascinating, and twenty parts sleazy. Luckily, Facebook and Burson-Marsteller have just handed exactly that to us on a silver platter.
As you’ve undoubtedly seen by now, last night The Daily Beast’s Dan Lyons’ broke the story wide open about how the social network hired the PR firm to plant negative stories about rival Google in the… → Read More
Wuh oh — looks like someone at Verizon pushed back an ad campaign and forgot to tell… everyone else. → Read More
I’m a die-hard paper fan. I have a few shelves of books in almost every room of the house and I love taking a stack of magazines or newspapers on a plane – this is so ingrained in my psyche that I actually save magazines a few weeks before a long trip so I have something to read. But slowly, ever so slowly, this love of paper is leaving me. First I abandoned print journalism for the bare-knuckle… → Read More
A study conducted by research firm NPD Group revealed that the big bad iPad isn’t to blame for the current decline in consumer PC sales. The Apple iPad Owner Study II revealed that only 14 percent of early iPad adopters chose to forego a PC purchase because of their tablet purchase. Research firm IDC estimates a 10 percent drop in the U.S. PC market last quarter, citing factors outside of the… → Read More
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