Remember back in April when we reported that Friendster, one of the first dedicated social networking sites, was to unequivocally delete all user profiles photos, blogs, messages, groups and whatnot by May 31?
This morning, Friendster relaunched as yet another social gaming portal, powered by Facebook Connect (interesting comments over at Hacker News). → Read More
A new study by Yahoo (embedded below) shows that online video watching habits are shifting. People are watching longer videos and watching more at night during primetime. The chart above shows when people watch videos online. The blue line is today (2011) and the dotted line is two years ago (2009). The two lines show more than a 30 percent divergence during primetime.
So what changed? Peak online video viewing today is during prime time, between 6 PM and 9 PM. Only two years ago, prime time showed the biggest dip in online video viewing as people turned off their computers and turned on their TVs. But now, more people are streaming TV shows and movies from services like Netflix and Hulu, and they tend to watch those videos during the same time period they previously watched regular TV. While people may not yet be cord cutting, this data suggests that online watching does encroach upon regular cable and satellite TV watching. → Read More
It’s no secret that Accel is making major investments in the online payments space, funding both Wonga and e-payments company Yapstone. And today the venture firm is announcing a $34 million Series A investment in Chicago-based online payments company Braintree. Accel partner Ryan Sweeney will be joining Braintree’s board.
Braintree essentially powers and automates online payments for merchants and companies online. The company provides a merchant account, payment gateway, recurring billing, credit card storage, support for mobile and international payments, and PCI Compliance solutions. BrainTree has become a one-stop-shop for all the services a business needs to receive payments from anywhere in the world. → Read More
SoloPower— a manufacturer of flexible, thin film solar cells and modules— has raised another $43.7 million in an equity round this month, according to a new SEC filing. Investors in the round include: Greentech Capital in New York, and Thomas Weisel Partners in San Francisco. Earlier investors in the company include: Hudson Clean Energy Partners, Crosslink Capital, Convexa, and Firsthand.
In February this year, SoloPower locked a $197 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office to build a “facility that, when completed and at full capacity, is expected to produce approximately 400MW of thin film Photovoltaic (PV) modules annually,” according to a company press statement. → Read More
A Japanese company called Global Wave has developed a special film, which can be used to transform any given 2D LCD screen into a naked-eye 3D display – just applying it to the LCD is enough. Global Wave says the so-called Pic3D sheet is the first of its kind. → Read More
That didn’t take long. Tons of people haven’t even gained access to the Google+ field trial yet, but that hasn’t stopped Chinese authorities from blocking Google’s brand new social networking project, reports Ren Media.
Indeed, Just Ping and the Greatfirewallofchina.org website both confirm that plus.google.com is not accessible from mainland China. → Read More
Following the security breach in the PlayStation network in April (77 million PlayStation Network user accounts were compromised), Sony saw a radical management reshuffle in its gaming division, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI), today. As you could expect, big S denies a connection between both incidents, but today’s decision probably doesn’t surprise anyone. → Read More
Gotham’s most eligible bachelor needs a good set of wheels. Circa The Dark Knight, he drove a Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 but that raging bull has since hit the wide open spaces of the retirement pasture. Mr. Wayne’s latest ride is apparently the very new Lamborghini Aventador LP 700. This news comes by way of some pics taken on the scene of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises that clearly show a Gotham-plated Aventador sitting rather close to the Wayne mansion. The original post on Luxury4Play’s forums has since been deleted but Autoblog snagged the pics before it disappeared. Trust fund superheros have all the fun. → Read More
While hyperlinks are a fundamental backbone of the web, they’re also a bit odd. After all, hyperlinking is for the most part a subjective process. Someone decides if and when to link to something. It nudges the web from a completely open story into more of a choose your own adventure one. But what if we could change that?
That’s what HotSpots, a new feature from Apture aims to do. Most of you will know Apture as the contextual add-on service that both publishers (through simple JavaScript) and web surfers (through browser extensions) use to augment their web experience with information. What you may not know is that thanks to this service, Apture has access to some really good data. A lot of it. And the key part of that data shows exactly what users highlight when they browse webpages. → Read More
They’re at it again folks, and it only gets uglier and uglier.
Samsung has filed another complaint against Apple, according to the International Trade Commission website, this time to request an import ban against the iPhone, iPad, and iPod.
Should the ITC choose to investigate the complaint, we won’t get a final decision for at least 16 months. → Read More
Connected, a startup that manages all of your personal relationships on the web, has raised $500,000 in funding led by Trinity Ventures with 500 Startups, Ignition Partners, Christopher Michel, Michael Hoydich, and Mark Gray participating.
Via a web app, Connected integrates with Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, and Google Voice to become a personal relationship manager. Connected builds comprehensive profiles for each of your contacts with your entire conversation history as well as their latest status updates, photos, and work history from across their social profiles. → Read More
MediaMall, the folks behind the popular PlayOn media software, just announced the closed beta of PlayLater, a so-called DVR for online video. The service, which is available in a closed beta starting today, allows users to “record” online programming from over a dozen service for viewing later either on the computer it was recorded on or a device loaded with the retail version of PlayOn.
Believe it or not, the term DVR is actually appropriate here. I’ve used the service and it actually records the programming and wraps the video file in a DRM-laced .plv container that’s only playable on approved programs. How does it work? I have no idea, but it does and MediaMall’s breakaway success with PlayOn says this company knows media streaming. → Read More
The Optimus Mini Six is a smaller and less expensive way to add a bit of OLED magic to your desk rather than springing for the full-size keyboard. This little guy is in the early production stages according to the company’s official blog. Apparently they plan on releasing it later this year with the full-size Optimus Popularis coming next year. Knowing the company’s history of delays and missed deadlines, the fact that the Mini Six hit the production stage of its life is almost meaningless. It might still be months before it ships — if it ever does. But at least the dream is alive! → Read More
Vacation home rental service HomeAway has begun trading on the NASDAQ this morning under the symbol ‘AWAY’, with the shares trading as high as $37.10. giving the company a market cap of $3 billion. That’s an increase of 39 percent, up from the company’s initial pricing of $27 per share last night.
HomeAway, which filed for an IPO in March, raised $216 million in the offering. → Read More
Yesterday we reported that Nokia has a few girly-named phones in the works, one of which being the Nokia 700 Zeta. Unfortunately, all we had to lead us down the road to spec discovery was a vague and sparsely detailed spec sheet.
Today however, a couple snap shots have been leaked of the Zeta, and we wanted to make sure to give you a more informative introduction to this C6-01 successor. → Read More
Google has long offered Google Sites, which gives businesses and consumers a way to quickly build their own websites with no HTML knowledge required, making it relatively easy for anyone without a technical background to build a simple website. Until now, the platform has not had a mobile component. Today, Google is launching new functionality in Sites that allows users to create a simple mobile landing page for free.
Similar to templates for Google Sites web pages, Sites for Mobile allows users to pick a template that suits the consumer’s needs. For example, Sites offers and e-commerce template for users who want a mobile site to sell products (via Google Checkout). Google also offers customer mobile templates for local businesses, restaurants, lead generation and social. → Read More
Basho Technologies, a data storage and management software startup serving the enterprise market, this morning announced that it has raised $7.5 million in Series D funding.
In addition, Basho announced that its board of directors has named Donald J. Rippert, long time CTO of Accenture, as the company’s new president and chief executive officer. → Read More
Chicago-based SAVO has raised $14 million in new funding led by SAP Ventures with existing investor Sterling Partners participating in the round.
SAVO’s on-demand, collaborative Sales Enablement software aims to open communication across a company’s sales teams. The software connects sales reps with the best sales materials, insights and expertise across an organization. SAVO promises to helps drive better sales conversations so reps can close more deals. → Read More
Cloudera, the startup that commercially distributes and services Apache Hadoop based data management software and services, is unveiling a new version of its service, Cloudera Enterprise 3.5. The company is also releasing Cloudera SCM Express, which makes it fast and easy for anyone to install and configure a complete Apache Hadoop-based stack.
Hadoop is a Java software framework born out of an open-source implementation of Google’s published computing infrastructure which is fostered within the Apache Software Foundation. Hadoop supports distributed applications running on large clusters of commodity computers processing enormous amounts of data. Cloudera helps distribute Hadoop, and provides practical services around the technology, similar to what Red Hat does for the Linux framework. → Read More
