Apple’s ninja-like lawyers quickly “took care of” the last figurine made in Steve’s likeness. Maybe this one will fare a bit different. At least with a reported $160 price tag, this 1/6 model will likely be a more limited run and might run under Apple’s radar. Or not thanks to the multiple miniature Apple products that probably infringe on several copyrights. No word on where you’ll be able to buy mini Steve and his New Balance 992 sneakers, but ToyHaven is stating that it will carry a $160 price tag — if it makes it to product before the legal bad boys have their way. [via Technabob] → Read More
Zynga according to CNBC reporter Kate Kelly, Zynga will file its S-1 for an IPO with the SEC as early as tomorrow with a valuation between $15 billion and $20 billion.
Kelly says that Zynga will raise between $1.5 and $2 billion in its offering. The company, says CNBC, has selected Morgan Stanley as the main underwriter of the IPO, with Goldman Sachs and Bank of America also listed as additional underwriters. → Read More
Tokyo-based Japan Trend Shop, an online store selling unique gadgets and lifestyle products from Nippon, started listing something super-cute today: Hello Kitty-themed protective cases (the site is completely in English) for use with the iPhone 4. → Read More
Nokia is all about the ladies. With Symbian, we have Anna and Belle iterations, with more girly names to follow in alphabetical order. And of course, who could forget that absolutely ridiculous female-targeted N8 commercial? It’s certainly burned into the corners of my memory, unfortunately. Today we came across a leaked roadmap for upcoming Symbian handsets, and we were surprised to see that Nokia has taken the lady-love a step further, giving girly names (at least for now) to four different upcoming Symbian phones. → Read More
ThingWorx, which provides a platform for the development of apps connecting people, systems and the physical world, this morning announced that it has acquired privately held, Rochester, NY-based Palantiri Systems, maker of the AlwaysOn software platform.
The combination of both companies, ThingWorx posits, will result in a single company that it says will “represent the catalyst for the next stage of the ‘connected device’ revolution”. → Read More
Founded in 1999, Augme Technologies is an under-the-radar company that, over the last few years, has quietly built a mobile marketing technology platform that may see it become a big player in the mobile technology and marketing boom. The platform, called Ad Life, allows marketers, brands, and agencies to plan, create, test, deploy, and track mobile marketing programs — with the most noteworthy feature of Augme’s patented technology being the fact that it is able to reach targeted groups while remaining device-agnostic. → Read More
The popular UberSocial Twitter client for BlackBerry (formerly known as UberTwitter) just got an update with a bunch of new features and bug fixes.
Notably, its developer UberMedia is doubling down on its BlackBerry app around the same time one of its rivals, Seesmic, is abandoning the BlackBerry platform.
One of the new features in UberSocial for Blackberry 1.2 is called “Inner Circle”, which basically lets you group together the most important people you follow in an exclusive timeline, alongside the traditional timeline. → Read More
At a press event in New York City, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer rolled out the general availability of Microsoft 365, an online suite of productivity apps which includes Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync. It is “where Microsoft Office meets the cloud,” he says. Microsoft first announced Office 365 last October, and has signed up 200,000 business customers since then.
Office 365 is all of Microsoft’s cloud productivity apps rolled into one service. It includes Web-based email, shared documents, shared calendars, instant messaging, video conferencing and Web meetings, and websites. Customers can pick and choose which apps they want and pay a monthly subscription from $2 to $27 per month. → Read More
TravelShark (the startup formerly known as Swiftrank), which operates an online travel network, this morning announced that it has closed a $5 million round of financing from DLA Holdings, a Singapore-based private equity firm. TravelShark has raised a total of $8 million to date. → Read More
MartinJAY Digital this morning announced that it has acquired the assets of Social Blaze, a Los Angeles, California-based developer of social media management and analytics service. The digital agency purchased all of the company’s intellectual assets, including patent rights, source code and domain names, for an undisclosed sum.
MartinJAY says it acquired the social media management application developer, which was founded in 2009, to expand its ability to provide social web strategies and ROI to its clients. → Read More
Right around the beginning of May at the I/O event, Google revealed its daily Android activation data, which turned out to be 400,000 Android activations daily. It’s been two months, and now Google’s Android boss Andy Rubin has an adjustment he’d like to make to the numbers. “There are now 500,000 Android devices activated every day, and it’s growing at 4.4% w/w,” tweeted Rubin this morning. → Read More
I am aware we have covered the Sense-Roid, a robotic device that lets you hug yourself (don’t ask), last week already. But now our friends over at Diginfonews in Tokyo went out and shot a professional video that shows the tactile communications apparatus in action and explains it in more detail (and in English). → Read More
It’s tough to beat my colleague Alexia Tsotsis’ witty ‘What Mobile Photo Sharing App Should I Use’ infographic. Today Pixable, a startup that develops sleek social photo creation and categorization tools for Facebook and other photo sharing sites, is releasing its own photo sharing infographic focused on photo-sharing and the ‘hard knock’ life of a photo on Facebook.
Pixable’s service, which has 800,000 users, allows people to use of all their Facebook and image sharing site photo content like captions, tagging information, comments, and birthdays to make albums, slideshows, calendars and nor artwork. Pixable’s browser-based simplifies the creation of albums, making it easy to use for anyone. One of Pixable’s early applications was a nifty tool that allows you to make mosaics of your Facebook photos. → Read More
The types of technology that a Congressional office can use is severely restricted by the government (as a former Congressional staffer, I am acutely familiar with the strict procurement policy). Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is announcing that members of Congress will be able to use Skype’s videoconferencing technology on government computer systems.
Skype says that its engineers worked closely with the Congressional network security team to ensure that Skype is used safely for official business (and not for Weiner-like conduct). As part of the security precautions, each Congressional office will have access to their own Skype Manager account, so one central person in each office can administer the Skype accounts. → Read More
In a couple of days, Facebook will require game developers to implement its Facebook Credits currency, as announced in January 2011 (much to the dismay of some developers, although we should also note juggernauts such as Zynga, EA and RockYou were already on board).
This morning, Ifeelgoods is announcing that it raised $6.5m to strengthen its offering ahead of the July 1 Facebook Credits implementation deadline. Ifeelgoods offers a platform that allows retailers to provide Facebook Credits as marketing incentives in their online stores. → Read More
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong likes to streamline things. And he is about to streamline AOL even more. Somewhat reversing the anti-portal strategy he inherited, he will start to consolidate 53 different content brands into 20 “power brands.” (Don’t worry, TechCrunch is still one of them).
“More and more stuff is moving towards well-known brands,” says Armstrong. “Unless human nature is going to totally change, the Internet is going to end up in a branded environment.” → Read More
Research firm IDC forecasts the number of annual mobile app downloads to increase from 10.7 billion in 2010 to nearly 183 billion by 2015, notably more than the 44 billion mobile app downloads by 2016 forecasted by its competitor ABI Research.
IDC says the bigger story behind the numbers is an impending shift away from the current reliance upon mobile app download purchases as the primary focus of app monetization. → Read More
Israeli enterprise software company Harmon.ie has released a new version of its email plugin that adds social and collaborative features to Outlook, Google Docs and Lotus Notes. Harmon.ie for SharePoint 3.0 allows users to collaborate with colleagues and external contacts on Outlook without leaving the email interface.
Within Outlook, business users can share documents and track document updates; post and check colleagues’ real-time status; initiate phone/chat/video/email communications; and more. → Read More
The PS Vita is coming relatively soon, but Sony Japan today announced [JP] something nice for all users still in need of a PSP: a total of three new PSP value packs. The bundles will include a PSP in Piano Black, Vibrant Blue, or Blossom Pink – and they might be the last ones you can get, at least before the Vita goes on sale. → Read More
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