November 29th, 2011

SublimeVideo’s Cloud-Based HTML5 Player Goes Freemium

SublimeVideo - Home

Jilion, the makers of the cloud-based HTML5 video player SublimeVideo, are today making the product more accessible through the introduction of a freemium offering. When the service launched earlier this spring, commercial plans were available, starting at the relatively affordable rate of under $10 per month. But when it comes to user adoption, nothing beats “free.”
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November 24th, 2011

Why Haven’t We Seen A Rollup Yet in Online Video?

rolling

Online video is booming and the are tons of small video companies across production, advertising, distribution, and technology.  Yet we have yet to see a serious attempt to roll up the industry.  The reasons, I submit, boil down to egos and greed.

What is a Rollup?

Historically, large private equity firms have “rolled up” various small companies in a given market through mergers or acquisitions in order to reach economies of scale.  A rollup is different than a simple merger in that it involves multiple parties, oftentimes taking place in a mature industry where growth can’t occur organically, but rather, through financial engineering or cost cutting.

This is partially why we haven’t seen that many rollups of Internet companies, because usually a merger is all it takes to reach considerable market dominance.  Sometimes rollups make sense because building a product or business would take too long to build internally and grow organically.  Ask Jeeves bought Interactive Search Holdings for $343M in March 2004 to double market share and then sold to IAC a year later for $1.8 billion. → Read More

November 21st, 2011

Video Platform Startup Veenome Raises $500K From Ecosystem VC & Angels

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Washington, D.C.-based video indexing and discovery startup Veenome has raised $500, 000 in seed funding from Ecosystem Ventures (investors in Tube Mogul and Facebook), plus private angel investors from Google, Dingman Center Angels, as well as Chegg founder Aayush Phumhra and the founder of WebMetrics Tim Drees.

The company uses proprietary automated video recognition technology to scan video clips for products, brands and objects which can be tagged and indexed. → Read More

November 20th, 2011

The Nook Tablet vs. Kindle Fire Drop Test

I hate these kind of videos. There’s enough waste in electronics that we don’t need to destroy stuff that is in already perfect condition (hence our refusal to post those ridiculous Will It Blend videos). However, this is for science! → Read More

November 19th, 2011

The Rise Of Video Ad Networks

video ad

Venture capital is flowing into video ad networks: Brightroll recently raised $30 million, Yume raised $12 million.  Tremor Video’s raised over $100 million.

But not everyone’s buying the hype: “it’s just not a big enough market for all the money invested, there can’t be six or seven category leaders”, argues Will Margiloff, chief executive officer of Ignition One, a unit of Japan’s Dentsu.  Some have raised more money than their revenue potential. → Read More

November 18th, 2011

Chumkee Launches New App For Social Photo & Video Conversations

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An odd but interesting new photo-and-video sharing iPhone app called Chumkee is officially announcing its public launch today. I know, I know. Another photo-and-video sharing app – just what you need. But Chumkee is doing something a little different here with its concept, user interface and design. This app isn’t about simply “sharing photos with your friends.” It’s about sharing publicly, in an almost Twitter-like format, complete with @usernames and a “reply” feature. In other words, social conversations based around photos and videos.

But that’s not all. The app also ditches the traditional Twitter timeline-esque view for a photo pile design that allows you to move pictures and videos around on the screen or drag them off the side of the screen when you’re done. → Read More

November 13th, 2011

Hands On With The MB&F LM1: The Coolest Watch You’ll See Today

I got to sit down with Steve Hallock, the North American president of MB&F and driving force behind the Swiss watch brand’s western expansion. The watch he brought for us is the LM1 aka the Legacy Machine #1, a new piece we wrote about earlier last month and that is just now shipping to oligarchs and captains of industry around the world. → Read More

November 12th, 2011

People Now Watch Videos Nearly 30 Percent Longer On Tablets Than Desktops

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It may come as no surprise, but Americans are watching more and more online video. In fact, they’re practically jonesin’ for it. According to comScore’s numbers, 182 million Americans watched online video content in September (for an average of 19.5 hours per viewer), while the U.S. video audience tallied a total of 39.8 billion video views. But what may be a bit more surprising is the extent to which people are now watching their video on tablets.

From Ooyala’s study comes a number of interesting interesting conclusions. First and foremost, tablets are seeing a significantly higher level of engagement in online video viewing, as tablet viewers watch longer than viewers of desktops or mobile devices. For each minute watched on a desktop, tablets recorded “1:17 in played content”, which works out to 28 percent longer than the desktop average. → Read More

November 8th, 2011

Watch New York’s Largest Watch Shop Turn Back 8,000 Watches

As a watch fan, setting your pieces back and forth a few times a year is trivial. But what if you’re dealing with a collection of 8,000 watches? This video shows how the folks at Tourneau Time Machine, New York’s largest watch shop, deal with all of the winding, setting, and checking of their entire stock.

The entire process takes three days, from Friday until Sunday. → Read More

November 4th, 2011

Hands On With The AppXRacer From AniApp

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If you’re a fan of the Parrot AR.Drone, you’ll probably get a kick out its earthbound relative, the AirXRacer by AniApp. I got a first hands on with this iPhone- or Android-controlled racecar in Shenzhen and you will be able to pick it up this holiday season.

The car is a standard RC racer that, as you can see, is quite fast. You control it using your phone’s accelerometer or using an onscreen “wheel,” a method that offers a bit more finesse. The creator, Jeff Luo of AniApp Labs, said the cars would be available in Radio Shack and Brookstone this holiday and the apps are available now for download. → Read More

November 2nd, 2011

Loiloscope 2 Lets You Edit HD Videos In Real Time, Now Offers More Features

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Over a year passed since we covered powerful video editor LoiLoScope, but instead of resting on its laurels, maker LoiLo has kept innovating on the product. Aptly named LoiLoScope 2, the updated software for Windows PCs (system requirements) still has the same key value proposition: combining an easy-to-use UI (geared towards pros and amateurs alike) and a ton of editing functions with a technical “killer feature” (instead of letting the CPU do the heavy lifting, the editor uses the GPU for video processing).

Thanks to the “GPGPU editing engine”, LoiLoScope makes it possible to edit and preview videos in HD in real-time. In other words, users don’t need to wait for the software to process and then reflect the changes they make to the videos but can track them without delay (LoiLoScope supports a long list of input and output video formats). → Read More

October 27th, 2011

Livestream Refreshes Video Service: “Viewers Can Rewind While Its Live”

livestream closeup

Livestream is unveiling a major upgrade to its live video service today. It won’t be fully rolled out until December, but you can see a preview of it here or watch the video below. The new player brings a few firsts to live video: an adaptive bitrate which can adjust dynamically based on the viewers bandwidth up to HD quality (720p); an instant playback DVR feature; a live blogging platform to add text, photos, and video clips underneath the main video; and social networking features.

One of the most noticeable changes is the DVR functionality. “Viewers can rewind while it is live,” says CEO Max Haot. One of the big issues with live video online is that it takes a while for an archive to be viewable. At the very least, you have to wait for the live event to be finished before an archive can be produced. But Livestream’s new platform allows for viewers to jump back to earlier parts of the live video while it is still being streamed. This feature will also allow producers to cut clips and embed them in the feed below the video stream.
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October 25th, 2011

Just Look At My Beautiful, Working Pocket Cannon

If you’re like me, I’m sure you spend your evenings idly stroking the decommissioned artillery at the local WWII memorial, dreaming of the day you can ride a white-hot shell over the heads of your friends and family and land into a herd of cattle, leaving this world in a blaze of guts and glory. However, since that opportunity will probably never present itself, I’d like to introduce you to the Pocket Artillery, a CNCed lug of metal that, with the help of a BB and a little black powder, can shoot a hole in a soda can.

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October 24th, 2011

Video: Watch The Nokia N9 Take Shape

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It isn’t everyday that we’re afforded a look at what goes into making our favorite phones, but a new video from Nokia shows us how exactly their gorgeous unibody N9 handsets are made. → Read More

October 24th, 2011

Video-Sharing Startup Shelby.tv Launches Into Public Beta With New iOS App

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Shelby.tv, the video-sharing startup (and stars of Bloomberg’s TechStars reality show), is today exiting out of its private alpha phase and launching into a public beta. The service, founded by Reece Pacheco, Dan Spinosa, Henry Sztul and Joe Yevoli, aggregates the video links your friends are sharing across social networks in order to offer you personalized video recommendations.

It’s now available in the iTunes app store as a native app for the iPhone or iPad. → Read More

October 22nd, 2011

Fans Line Up At New Seattle Windows Store… For The Concert

This stuff writes itself. At the grand opening of a new Windows Store in Seattle folks were camping out for most of the night only to stream in, breathlessly ready to partake in the one exciting product Microsoft could offer – a free concert by the Black Keys.
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October 22nd, 2011

Bill Gates Pitches Windows Vista, Predicts The iPad (2006 Video)

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Five years ago, I was working for a Belgian company that published the only weekly IT magazine in the country, Data News. I was not a reporter, but in charge of its online media products. When it was announced that Microsoft founder Bill Gates would be coming to Brussels to, for the first time, pitch Windows Vista to enterprise customers and partners at the MS Business Innovation Event, I jumped on the opportunity to convince the editor of the magazine to arrange for a camera to be placed in the conference hall so we could record his talk. → Read More

October 21st, 2011

Microsoft’s Augmented Reality 3D HoloDesk Lets You Play With Balls In Real Time

Do you mind if Microsoft drops a little future on you like a ton of bricks? This HoloDesk uses a half-silvered mirror and a Kinect sensor to “see” your hands in 3D space then project visible objects on and around them, allowing you to juggle virtual spheres, play with phones, and generally get all Minority Report up in this piece.
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October 17th, 2011

TCTV: TechCrunch Gadgets Webcast

In this episode of the TechCrunch Gadgets Webcast we assess the value of camera film, decide that Devin is the 6th Decemberist, and express how much we love Asus’ new ultrabook.
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October 14th, 2011

Watch Burning Man Appear And Disappear

I’ve sadly (??) never been to burning man, but this time-lapse footage of the playa over five weeks is pretty inspiring. First you see a small group of folks begininning to set things up and then, when the gates open, all heck breaks loose, creating a mini-city in the desert.
→ Read More

Real-Time
Crunchbase

Durham Graphene Science — Received £1.2M in Seed funding from IP Group Plc
2.13.2012
OpenLabel — Company added to CrunchBase
2.13.2012
2.13.2012
Cidade Internet — Acquired by Populis.
2.1.2012
Jive Software — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:JIVE.
2.3.2012
Cidade Internet — Acquired by Populis.
2.1.2012
2.1.2012
2.9.2012
LetsBuy.com — Acquired by Flipkart.
2.9.2012
Cocoafish — Acquired by Appcelerator.
2.9.2012
Durham Graphene Science — Received £1.2M in Seed funding from IP Group Plc
2.13.2012
ClevrU — Received $550k in Unattributed funding
2.10.2012
OpenLabel — Received $80k in Seed funding from Peter Kirwan, Tim Drees, and Doug Taylor
2.10.2012
sneakpeeq — Received $2.67M in Unattributed funding from Bain Capital Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, Keith Rabois, Tim Kendall, Mike Murphy, and Vikas Gupta
2.10.2012
Noble Biomaterials — Received $8M in Series B funding from Northwater Capital, TL Ventures, and DuPont Capital Management
2.10.2012
2.13.2012
Peter Kirwan — Invested in OpenLabel.
2.10.2012
Doug Taylor — Invested in OpenLabel.
2.10.2012
Tim Drees — Invested in OpenLabel.
2.10.2012
Metamorphic Ventures — Invested in sneakpeeq.
2.10.2012
Jive Software — Went public with stock symbol NASDAQ:JIVE.
2.3.2012
OpenLabel — Company added to CrunchBase
2.13.2012
Bookt — Company added to CrunchBase
2.12.2012
Kigo.Net — Company added to CrunchBase
2.12.2012
LiveRez — Company added to CrunchBase
2.12.2012
Preference Digital — Company added to CrunchBase
2.12.2012
2.12.2012
Metier HR - Cloud Based HR Process Automation Suite — Product added to CrunchBase
2.12.2012
TweepsMap — Product added to CrunchBase
2.12.2012
Wupbox account — Product added to CrunchBase
2.11.2012
Pocketbook (Mobile app, coming soon) — Product added to CrunchBase
2.11.2012
CrunchBase