Monday, 20 May 2013
Google Checkout for merchants to be retired on November 20th
Helios handlebars add LED blinkers, GPS and more to any bike (hands-on)
Yahoo's Unwatchable Live Stream Proves Its Next Acquisition Should Be A Proper Video Platform
It’s easy to forget that Yahoo has had a long, on-again-off-again love affair with online video. But you might not remember that, because other online video platforms long ago left Yahoo in the proverbial dust. Today, as Yahoo streamed its Flickr product and Tumblr acquisition announcements, we were given a demonstration of why Yahoo has been left in the dust — and why it’s had to turn to acquisitions for help in, well, nearly every department.
The event was nearly impossible to watch. Because, well, you know, Yahoo! As you’ve heard by now, Yahoo has been on an impressive buying spree over the last month — including, by the way, a scuppered deal to boost its video tech and buy the “YouTube of France,” Dailymotion — snatching up a new company seemingly every week.
But today, the company raised the bar even higher with the $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, hoping to turn back the clock and gain access to Tumblr’s millions of young users.
The company held a media event in New York City this afternoon to formally announce the acquisition — along with sharing the news that it will be moving into new digs in Times Square — but something was stealing the spotlight from Mayor Bloomberg and Marissa Mayer. And that would be Yahoo’s questionable video tech. Those who watched the event from home spent most of that time enjoying a hiccupy stream. Or none at all.
You can see the Error message above. The video streaming technology is Yahoo’s own, running through Yahoo! Screen, first launched back in 2006, renamed Screen from Yahoo Video. With all the acquisitions Yahoo has been making of late, it makes one think that, for its next acquisition, Yahoo should go for some new video technology. Of course, after Tumblr, it may be broke.
But, come on, Yahoo has somehow become the Rudy story of the tech industry. At the very least, someone should launch a Kickstarter page so that it can continue to make acquisitions.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/eIAnZ7GqFYk/
Dijit unveils NextGuide Web with Facebook-sourced TV recommendations
Flickr Gets A Huge Revamp With Hi-Res Image-Filled UI, New Android App, And 1TB Of Free Storage
The new Flickr is live.
Smack-dab in the middle of Yahoo-Tumblr aqcuisition day, Yahoo is holding a major press event here in NYC. But announcements coming out of this event aren’t related to Tumblr as much as Flickr, the photo-sharing database and social network acquired by Yahoo in March of 2005 for $35 million.
Today, Flickr gets a huge revamp including a totally new look and feel, focused on three different things. First, there are no more bits of text or blue links, but rather a grid layout of huge pictures in full resolution.
Second, stemming from the updated iOS app recently, which yielded 25 percent more uploads, the company is also announcing a brand new Android experience, catching the Google version of the Flickr app up to the iOS version.
Finally, Flickr looks to get even “biggr.” The company is expanding storage for your photos, by quite a bit. Flickr is offering 1 terabyte of free storage for every Flickr user. Yahoo made it clear that no other Internet company in the world offers a free terabyte of storage. That’s the equivalent of 537,731 photos.
In terms of the UI redesign, the new photostream has a justified format grid layout, complete with a header photo and a Timeline-style profile for users. On the top left, next to the photostream button, you can also click into Favorites and Sets.
But what are photos without sharing? Users have an easy share button to send photos out on any of their favorite social networks, including Tumblr.
Most importantly, Flickr has fiddled with the picture page to give a black background and a fullscreen image for every single photo page. The site has been revamped to give easy-click access to the next photo in the set or photostream, even in full-screen mode.
Adam Cahan, SVP of Mobile and Emerging products at Yahoo, announced that Flickr currently has 89 million users who have shared over 8 billion photos. That’s a lot of pictures.
Mayer explained that most of the changes happening at Yahoo concerns users’ daily habits, which explains why the company has put so much focus on the Yahoo Home Page, Yahoo mail, and the Yahoo weather app. In a number of ways, these products are energized and enhanced by photos.
Yahoo’s, and particularly Marissa Mayer’s, tweaks to its overall service and the Flickr experience has helped build out both platforms, but there are still questions over Flickr’s ability to generate revenue and, perhaps more importantly, compete with photo-sharing behemoth Instagram.
It’s worth noting the timing here: Yahoo just bought out one of the biggest and most popular blogging platforms around, and Flickr is a huge resource for blogs in general. But how will Yahoo integrate the two to build out use of both and make both experiences more seamless?
“We have a nice set of the creator brands,” said Mayer. “Photographers and writers. With that, there is natural set of opportunities that arise between Flickr and Tumblr and we’ll deal with that as it comes.”
Alongside Flickr’s product announcement news, Mayer revealed that the company would be setting up shop at a new NY office in Times Square, in the New York Times building, which will hold all 500 employees based in NY, along with room for expansion to 200 more employees.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/KpYK2uI-WNg/
Flickr get major redesign with grid UI, users get 1TB of free storage
Yahoo NYC press event liveblog
Spot satellite-powered Global Phone keeps adventurers connected for $499
A Michael Jackson Hologram? Will.I.Am Wants to Rock With Virtual MJ
Wacom releases Bamboo Loop photo-sharing digital card app (video)
Bloomberg: Dish offers $2 billion for LightSquared's wireless spectrum
Editorial: Google confuses magic with middling as it steps into music streaming
Lenovo ThinkPad S3 and S5 teased, show off aluminum 'floating design'
Square Cash appears on invite-only site, lets you send money with an email
Yahoo's post-Tumblr purchase press event is live tonight, get your liveblog here!
Tumblr updates iOS app to match redesigned Android interface
Super Skinny iPad 5 May Hit Stores This Fall
Liberator gun made with consumer 3D printer, plastic pistol fires nine shots successfully (video)
Last Call For Pitch Applications To The Austin Meetup + Pitch-Off. Also, Get Tickets Here!
10 days, people! TechCrunch invades Austin in just ten days from now, with our legendary Meetup + Pitch-off series.
The magic started in New York this year, with a hugely successful pitch-off, an amazing turn-out and lots of fun memories. So we’re heading out on the open road with the event, which includes a networking meetup as well as a 60-second pitch-off competition with awesome prizes. Over the course of the year, we’ll be hitting up Boston, San Diego, and Seattle, but the first stop on our journey is in the great state of Texas.
Austin, are you ready?
The Austin Meetup + Pitch-Off will be held at The Stage On Sixth promptly at 6pm on May 30, and will come to a close around 10pm.
Tickets include booze (21 and older please), live entertainment in the form of that 60-second pitch-off contest, and there will even be some prizes and a fireside chat with a local Austin luminary, Bijoy Goswami. Tickets to the event are selling out quickly, so if you’d like to come hang out with myself, John Biggs, Matt Burns, and your local tech community, click here and grab a ticket.
Speaking of time running out… Entrepreneurs, this is your last call for applications to the 60-second pitch-off. First place in the pitch-off will receive a table in Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013. Second Place will receive two tickets to the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt, and Third Place will receive one ticket to TechCrunch Disrupt SF.
Companies selected to participate in the pitch-off will also meet with TC staffers for one-on-one office hours sessions to discuss the product and pitch.
Up to the challenge? Apply to be in the pitch-off here.
Our NY Meetup + Pitch-Off was quite the success. PaddleYou was spotted in Hardware Alley after coming in third at the Pitch-Off, while runners up Talkz and winner 3DLT both made it into the Disrupt Battlefield.
C’mon! How can it not be a great time?
We’re looking forward to seeing you there!
Our sponsors help make events happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here sponsors@techcrunch.com.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/6k46jQN56JA/
Arduino Yun weds Arduino, WiFi and linux at Maker Faire 2013
Microsoft's next Xbox: The rumor roundup
Visualized: The Jolla phone's 'other half' kaleidoscope
Pinterest adds more data to your boards with rich pins
Hangouts upgrade disables outbound Google Voice calls in desktop Gmail, company promises it will return 'soon'
IRL: TYLT cables and a standoff between two Galaxies
Photos of a new Samsung Galaxy S 4 emerge, could it be the Acitve?
United Airlines puts Dreamliner back in the air after four-month grounding
Microsoft launches The Music Room, an interactive TV series on Xbox Live
Galaxy S III Android 4.2.2 firmware leaked, adds several S 4 features (video)
ASUS Zenbook Infinity Ultrabook to appear at Computex 2013 with Gorilla Glass 3 lid
Neverware Raises $1M To Keep Schools' Computers Quick Like Lightning
There is no sadder moment than the one where you realize it’s time to upgrade your computer. The load times are too slow, the battery no longer holds a charge, and it’s just too damn heavy. Now, imagine a school with dozens of outdated computers, and think just how bad that moment of realization can really be.
Neverware, a company based out of NY, is aiming to change all that with a turnkey solution that automatically boosts performance of old computers for a low monthly fee. Obviously, demand for this type of service is high, especially in the education industry, which is why Neverware has just closed a $1 million round from investors that include Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Collaborative Fund, and Nihal Mehta.
Founder Jonathan Hefter started Neverware back in 2011 and launched in January 2013 with around $600K in seed funding. Since then, the company has been working to evangelize the product to NYC schools, and the response has been great. According to Hefter, Neverware’s latest seed round is somewhat of an emergency raise, considering that the demand from schools is much higher than expected.
Hefter explained that they expected to sign on with between five and seven schools for the first semester, starting in January. However, they’ve blown way past that number and seen around 3x the customer sign-ups. According to Neverware, most of the new seed round will go toward smart engineering hires, as Hefter looks to double the seven-man team with more employees who care about what Neverware is doing.
Neverware works by setting up a Juicebox 100 in the schools. That piece of hardware integrates with the school’s network to bring automation and intelligence to the system. The Neverware virtualization technology then boosts performance to each computer, giving kids the access they need to actually get things done.
Schools pay an adjustable fee per month, per computer, and the Juicebox comes free.
“There is a huge challenge in deploying software on appliances across a wide variety of networks that we do not control,” said Hefter. “In order to be a reliable solution, we engineer an incredible amount of intelligence and automation into our system that allows it to function in many types of network environments that schools might have and recover from a wide range of network-related issues, without any associated downtime. These are engineering challenges that you simply don’t face when you’re running a website on uniform Amazon instances in the cloud.”
For now, Neverware is focused on expanding within the greater New York area, and will eventually expand beyond that into new regions.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/nNRl0MWiDLQ/
Sony Entertainment Network web store launching in Japan on May 29th
Tumblr's Loss Is WordPress' Gain As Thousands Of Users Jump Ship Before Yahoo Takes Over
In what can only be called an exodus, WordPress’ co-founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg posted on his blog Sunday night that over 72,000 new blogs were created within an hour. This is a massive spike considering that WordPress usually just sees 400 to 600 new blogs on most Sundays. It’s a tiny percentage of Tumblr’s 108.6M blogs (.66%) but it’s an important consideration that Tumblr – and now Yahoo – cannot ignore.
Yahoo is officially buying Tumblr for a lot of cash. $1.1 billion to be precise. This move makes a few people very happy and very rich. But Tumblr’s content creators – you and me – are the primary reason Yahoo is buying the site. Unfortunately, that content engine isn’t very happy.
WordPress will likely have another banner day as even more Tumblr users look for alternative platforms to host their saucy Brony slashfic.
Tumblr is currently an unfettered corner of the Internet. Nearly anything goes, and with that users have enjoyed this freedom to create a vast variety of blogs and sites. Anything from questionable pornography to vegan cooking blogs are hosted on Tumblr. While Yahoo promises to keep Tumblr independent, it’s unclear whether this includes maintaining Tumblr’s loose posting guidelines.
This has happened before. A small percentage of Instagram users loudly quit the service when Facebook purchased the social network. Likewise, Facebook is losing users as it becomes an established service. WordPress is likely going to be the largest benefactor of Tumblr’s exodus. As Mullenweg notes, the two services have long enjoyed a close relationship. It only takes a few clicks to import a Tumblr site to a WordPress install.
Tumblr users are afraid Yahoo is going to ruin it. After all, Yahoo has set that precedent after scooping up sites like Geocities and del.icio.us only to abandon development and let the sites rot in the Internet sun. But the Yahoo of today is not the Yahoo of yesterday.
Yahoo is booming under Marissa Mayer. The company is a on buying spree, scooping up hot startups, resulting in the acquisition of content, talent, and, press coverage. If anything, Wall Street likes what Yahoo is doing as the company’s stock price is up nearly 71% for the year. But despite Yahoo’s frank promise that it will not screw up Tumblr, a social network is only as strong as its users and in a very direct way, Yahoo is already screwing up Tumblr.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/2loPlLGr_Zg/
Why Yahoo's Tumblr Acquisition Is So Surprising
European commissioner promises single mobile market by 2015
Yahoo confirms acquisition of Tumblr, but will run it as a 'separate business'
Samsung's New 13-Inch Display Has a Crazy 3,200 x 1,800 Pixel Resolution
A tour of the Jolla phone with software head Marc Dillon (video)
WordPress CEO claims 72,000 blogs defected from Tumblr after Yahoo acquisition news
Samsung to exhibit 13.3-inch notebook display with 3,200 x 1,800 resolution
Mobile Ad Startup Adelphic Hires WPP's Michael Collins As CEO
Adelphic is announcing that Michael Collins (pictured), previously global CEO at WPP-owned mobile marketing agency Joule, has joined the mobile ad startup as its new chief executive. The current CEO Changfeng Wang will remain on-board as CTO.
Wang and his co-founder Jennifer Lum both worked at Apple-acquired mobile ad network Quattro, and they announced last year that they had launched a new company. Adelphic says it helps mobile advertisers find the most desirable audiences for their ads, addressing the lack of a persistent ID for mobile users by analyzing different signals that allow it to predict a visitor’s demographic data.
At the end of last year, the company raised a $10 million Series A led by Google Ventures, bringing its total funding to $12 million. It now has a team of 33 full-time employees, Lum said.
As for Collins, he launched Joule in 2007, according to the company website. Before that, he was US General Manager for Refresh Mobile, which spun out of T-Mobile, and a partner at e-business consultancy USWeb/CKS.
“Adelphic has an amazing technical and product team with a clear vision for what to build,” said Google Ventures partner and Adelphic board member Rich Miner in a press release. “As one of the most respected leaders in mobile advertising, Michael complements the team. His skills and expertise will be invaluable as Adelphic implements the platform for top publishers and advertisers.”
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/d3AWUarF3ow/
Código Penal Gallardón, criminalizando media Internet para proteger la propiedad intelectual
Por si la denostada Ley Lassalle nos parecía poco, el gobierno sigue adelante con su empeño de criminalizar los enlaces y cualquier dispositivo o software que permita saltarse un sistema anti copia, aunque sea para ejercer nuestro derecho a copia privada, derecho que ya queda enormemente restringido por la Ley Lassalle.
Y si la Ley Lassalle actúa por la vía civil, el Código Penal Gallardón, como su propio nombre indica, lo hace por la vía penal, con lo que las consecuencias de verse procesado bajo este son mucho más preocupantes.
Citando a Carlos Sánchez Almeida en Código Penal Gallardón, otra ley contra internet (las negritas son mías):
Lean los artículos 270 y 271, relativos a los delitos contra la propiedad intelectual. Tomen aire, y vuelvan a leerlos. Sí: pretenden establecer penas de hasta 6 años de prisión para quien «facilite el acceso» de cualquier obra intelectual, aún sin beneficio económico directo, además de páginas de enlaces y para los vendedores de cualquier dispositivo que permita la elusión de protecciones tecnológicas. Pretenden criminalizar media internet, y a la práctica totalidad de las tiendas de reparación de consolas.
El borrador de la ley en cuestión está disponible en formato PDF [1,8 MB] vía el Departamento de Derecho Penal de la Universidad de Barcelona.
Algunas reacciones de los abogados de mi lista de abogados en Twitter:
Se nos está yendo de las manos... Aquí no se han ponderado adecuadamente los derechos a proteger, y menos se ha comparado con otros casos
— Sergio Carrasco (@sergiocm) 20 de mayo de 2013
Si se aprueba así, tener una web de enlaces en España será más perseguido que quien prostituya a menor de edad o incapaz (5 años prisión)
— David Maeztu (@davidmaeztu) 20 de mayo de 2013 La que se nos viene encima.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/internet/codigo-penal-gallardon-criminalizando-media-internet-para-proteger-propiedad-intelectual.html