FUNKY GREEN: 07/10/13

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

Sony's four pillar approach to game publishing on PlayStation 4 aims to level the playing field

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T-Mobile Expands 4G LTE Network, Now Reaches 157 Million Users

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T-Mobile Jump Program Lets Customers Upgrade More Often

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ABB to build over 200 EV charging stations in the Netherlands' largest network

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Snapchat Had the Frattiest Creation in Startup History

Philips intros Ambilight+Hue integration, 60-inch Elevation TV (video)

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The Roku 3 Is Your Deal Of The Day

Check if your Android phone is patched against the 'Master Key' exploit with this app

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Hubble researchers identify color of an exoplanet for the first time (video)

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Sony Xperia Z Review: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl of Phones

PlayStation 3 YouTube app updated with send to TV support

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All Electric Vehicle Rally ends with Tesla S in top spot

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Nokia Lumia 925 lands on T-Mobile July 17th for $49.99 down

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T-Mobile's LTE network expanding faster than planned, now covers 116 metro areas

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T-Mobile introduces Simple Choice family plans with no credit check required

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Xperia Z for T-Mobile available from Sony today, T-Mobile on July 17th

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Sony Xperia Z for T-Mobile: what's different?

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T-Mobile unveils Jump, allows customers to upgrade any time

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Pantheon Aims To Take The Pain Out Of Collaborative Web Development With New Multidev Feature

Drupal-based cloud platform Pantheon is launching a new feature today called Multidev, which it says addresses the number one request from the developers using the platform — the ability to “fork” every aspect of a web development project so that large teams can collaborate.

Co-founders Zack Rosen and Josh Koenig told me one of the big challenges in development is synchronizing the work of large teams, with delays and bugs caused by a “fragmented process.” In a Pantheon blog post, they elaborate:

Accurate estimation and cat-herding will always be hard, but these problems from gaps in the toolchain are untenable. Blown deadlines and lost developer productivity have serious real-world consequences — they stretch budgets, fray nerves, reduce business value, and can even put a dev shop out of business.

That’s not the cloud. That can’t scale.

The need for collaboration tools has been the driver behind the popularity of GitHub, but Rosen (who’s also Pantheon’s CEO) said that GitHub has limitations: “GitHub only cares and knows about your code.” That means all kinds of problems can crop up due to platform differences or outdated databases or content.

Koenig said that with Multidev, on the other hand, “When you make a fork, instead of it being another copy of text or code, you get a complete copy of the database, the content files, all the services you have to have to run a website.” Pantheon has already built its own cloud platform for development, and each of those copies runs on that platform via a custom URL, so customers don’t have to spend time setting up their own local environments. And the project manager can then merge everyone’s work from their own dashboard without worrying about “It worked on my machine”-type situations.

Rosen and Koenig gave me a demo of Multidev in action, quickly setting up separate project forks and then merging them again. As you can probably guess, I don’t have any direct experience with web development, so the demo went a bit over my head, but I sent the basic information over to TechCrunch columnist Jon Evans, who actually works in the field. He told me that it “actually sounds quite cool” and that he’d consider using it for one of his current projects.

Pantheon, which launched in 2011, was built to address many of the problems that Rosen, Koenig, and their co-founder/CTO David Strauss encountered while working as Drupal consultants. Eventually, Rosen said he realized that he wanted to solve those problems with a single technology platform, rather than building custom solutions and “throwing them over the wall.” He added that for many developers, the job of building a website for a large business has become as much about systems administration as it has about development per se — Pantheon can get developers focused on building a great website again while its technology handles everything else, including the hardware, the operating system, and scaling.

Multidev will be available to Pantheon’s self-serve and enterprise customers.

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Instagram Introduces Photo and Video Embeds

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Nokia adds Peek hover function to Lumias running latest Amber OS update

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Amazon Prime just added hundreds of Miramax titles in its instant video library, including award win

Xbox One Prototypes In Every Possible Shape, Heaped Into a Pile

The Seattle Meetup + Pitch-Off Is On July 18: Are You Ready To Rumble?

On the night of July 18, we are going to witness the most anticipated pitch-off in the history of TC Meetups + Pitch-offs, for the Seattle Pitch-Off Battle Championship of the world!

Pitch-off fans: Are you ready? Arre youu rrrrrrreeeeady?

For the hundreds in attendance, and the thousands reading around the world, from the rainiest city in America, Seattle, Washington, ladies and gentlemen: Let’s get ready to ruummbbbbbbbblllllee!!!

By now, you know exactly what’s up.

We’re bringing TechCrunch to Seattle on July 18th for a night of drinking, debauchery, and good old-fashioned tech talk at ShowBox at the Market. Not only will there be fireside chats with some of Seattle’s biggest names in tech, but we’ll be holding a 60-second pitch-off where entrepreneurs can convince a panel of esteemed judges that their product is the bomb.

First place will receive a table in Startup Alley at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt. Second place will receive 2 tickets to the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt. Third place will receive 1 ticket to the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt. Those chosen to participate in the Pitch-Off will also get an office hours session with a TechCrunch writer for one-on-one feedback on their pitch and product.

If the Pitch-Off seems like your jam, make sure to apply here or with the form below.

The event will begin promptly at 6pm and end around 10pm. If you’d like to purchase tickets, head over here. They only cost $5 and get you a drink ticket, meaning that we appreciate that you’re 21+ please.

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Leaked Sprint document shows new Unlimited, My Way and My All-In plans

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This Is Why People Still Pirate

Multicolored budget iPhone shows up at multiple sources in multiple hues

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Instagram now offers photo and video embedding through its desktop site

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Driving Toyota's insane 600-horsepower TMG EV P002 electric Pikes Peak racer (video)

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Checklight, the head impact indicator from Reebok and mc10 is now on sale for $149.99

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Iberia becomes the first airline to offer print-at-home luggage labels with MyBagTag

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University Transforming Unused TV Channels Into Campus Wi-Fi Networks

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Loudie, The App That Gamifies Your Concert Plans

If concerts are you’re thing, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re slightly overwhelmed with all the upcoming concert information sent your way, from various subscriptions with LiveNation, AEG, or Bowery.

But an app called Loudie is relaunching to clean up the process of planning with friends, while giving you easy ways to access free tickets to shows nearby.

Originally Loudie was built as a Twitter for concerts, letting users buy tickets, check-in to concerts and share the moment with others tuning in to the feed from afar. However, founder Lance Dashoff realized that people at concerts may be taking pictures or videos but they’re also consumed in the moment. Sharing isn’t high priority.

With the new and improved Loudie, it’s a much more casual experience. Users can browse upcoming concerts in NY and LA, and casually “join” them to spread the idea to their followers. “The idea is around planning,” said Dashoff. “You share a couple of concerts you’re interested in and it only takes having around three friends on it to be useful for finding something similar. It’s a great conversation starter.”

Other services tend to bombard you with information, but Loudie lets you be the proactive one, and only sends you notifications when it’s to reward you with a chance for free tickets. Think of it as slightly gamified social planning around concerts.

For every concert you join, and how far that sharing travels amongst friends, you accrue points that build on to your overall score. These points do not let you purchase anything, they are simply a measure of your activity on the network.

Then, based on how many points you have, your location, and your interests, Loudie will send you push notifications with offers for free tickets for the first people who redeem. Sometimes the offer is for five tickets, sometimes for 10, or 20.

Those who don’t move fast enough for the first offer will be given the option to buy tickets from the app, which is accessing the venue’s mobile site. Dashoff tells me that most of the promotional push offers are for relatively inexpensive concerts, between $10 and $20 most of the time.

“These are shows you probably wouldn’t have known about at all if we hadn’t sent them to you, where you can invite friends and discover new music,” he said.

Eventually, there will be more ticketing options within the app for users, but for now DAshoff wanted to build something that’s easy to use adn doesn’t take much thought. You swipe into the push notifications for a chance to win, perhaps join a few new shows to accrue a few points, and eventually make plans with someone to see a show.

The app is available now in the Apple App Store for free.

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