FlexBeta

With Nearly Half Of All Jackthreads Orders Coming Through Mobile, The Company Launches A New iPad App

Posted by Gsurface on May 15, 2013 No comments

Jackthreads is a Thrillist company that features clothes and accessories for men. The style is all over the place – goofy t-shirts sit next to nice blazers and jackets – but it’s decidedly urbo-hipster in the design and sizing. Full disclosure: I try my damnedest not to buy their stuff but I still find my self idly clicking through and buying age-inappropriate streetwear. It’s pretty addicting. That said, they’re going gangbusters. The company will see $ 75-100 million in revenue this year and their iPhone app just passed 2 million downloads. The app has been a consistent top free lifestyle app and it pushes millions of pageviews and sales sessions. “It’s a huge driver for the business in every single way,” said CEO of Thrillist Media Group, Ben Lerer. “The native app experience killed for us,” he said. “It drove tens of millions of dollars of revenue.” They have just launched a new iPad app that acts as a catalog for their daily deals and pushes notifications when new sales are added. Lerer is excited about the new platform and has seen mobile usage explode. “We anticipate the highest conversion rate on any channel,” he said. “I know I’m buying more frequently on the iPad. Mobile is a huge driver for the business in every single way.” Given that Jackthreads is one of Thrillist’s most profitable properties and thanks to solid growth over the past few years, it’s clear that Lerer and team have found the goose that lays the lightweight golden track jacket with scorpion detail on the back.
TechCrunch

Collaaj Launches An Easy Way To Create, Store And Send Video Messages

Posted by Gsurface on May 15, 2013 No comments

Collaaj has launched a service designed to make it easy to create videos and send them as messages. The SaaS tool includes an editor that people can use to make the videos, which might be in the form of a demo recording of an app, a drawing, annotations on a presentation or someone sending a video message of themselves to an individual or a group. The data is managed through the Collaaj platform that includes a backend to a store, stream and securely share with other team members. The video can be saved as an MP4 and sent to other people as a link.
TechCrunch

Rovio launches Stars publishing program, names initial third-party games (video)

Posted by Gsurface on May 14, 2013 No comments

While Rovio still leans very heavily on one game franchise for its success, there’s no question that it’s a big company these days — big enough, in fact, that it’s venturing into publishing for the first time. Its new Rovio Stars division will look for a handful of promising third-party games to support, giving them both the resources and exposure needed to shine. The first titles to make the cut are Nitrome’s upcoming puzzler Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage and 5 Ants’ Tiny Thief. We don’t know if Rovio’s guiding hand will be enough to give these games a major boost, but we can get a taste of what’s to come through the Icebreaker trailer after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming

Comments

Via: Rovio

Source: Rovio Stars

Archos launches ChefPad, a 9.7-inch Android tablet for your kitchen

Posted by Gsurface on May 14, 2013 No comments

Does your kitchen need a 9.7-inch Jelly Bean tablet to call its own? No, it certainly does not. But if your budget can accommodate such a device, it might look just like the Archos ChefPad, “the perfect tablet for the cooking enthusiast.” Under the splash-resistant case, you’ll find a standard suite of tablet specs. There’s a 1.6GHz dual-core CPU, 1 gig of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, and front- and rear-facing 2-megapixel cameras, along with a pair of speakers and a built-in mic, making the device suitable for both playing back cooking lessons and recording your own. In addition to that red silicone case, you’ll receive a dedicated stand to match — both will ship in the box, along with the tablet, for just $ 210 this June.

Filed under: Tablets

Comments

Source: Archos

Google Launches Content Recommendation Engine For Mobile Sites, Powered By Google+

Posted by Gsurface on May 13, 2013 No comments

Google continues to increase the reach of its Google+ platform, and today the company is launching a new mobile content recommendation service powered by Google+. These recommendations will appear as small widgets at that bottom of the screen as users browse a news site that has enabled this service. Google’s launch partner for this service is Forbes, but others can implement these recommendations by just adding a single line of code to their mobile sites. Recommendations, Google says, can appear regardless of whether a users are signed in to Google+.
TechCrunch

beIN Sport launches Play streaming service for cable subscribers

Posted by Gsurface on May 11, 2013 No comments

You can’t always be camped out in front of your TV for the big soccer (or “footie”) match. Thankfully, beIN Sport is hopping on the streaming bandwagon and, starting today, will offer 24/7 access on both PCs and mobile phones though Play. Of course, like many of these properties making the leap from TV to the web, beIN Sport Play requires that you have an active subscription through a cable or satellite provider. At first only Time Warner and Bright House subscribers will have access, though other networks will come online over the next few months. Play will also offer unique features such as email alerts 30 minutes before the beginning of an event and the ability to watch alternative streams and un-broadcast matches. Now, if only beIN could convince Americans to care about soccer in the first place…

Filed under: HD

Comments

Bang With Friends Goes Mobile, Launches On iPhone And Android

Posted by Gsurface on May 8, 2013 No comments

You know, it’s been a pretty good few days for the (still mostly undercover) dudes behind Bang With Friends, the app that aims to help you do exactly what its name implies.

Just days after word trickled out that the service was approaching its millionth user and that the team is purportedly in the middle of raising a million bucks, Bang With Friends has just launched its iPhone and Android apps.
TechCrunch

Indian government launches Central Monitoring System, watches citizens’ calls, emails and internet activity

Posted by Gsurface on May 8, 2013 No comments

A new system for monitoring almost everything that’s going on inside India’s telecoms network has been quietly launched. The Central Monitoring System will offer the likes of the National Investigation Agency and tax arms of the government the ability to scrutinize phone calls, emails, text messages and even your online presence. In one of the fastest-growing internet markets in the world, the Indian government has been increasing its role in watching communication channels following the Mumbai bombings in 2008, with laws amended both that year and in 2011, increasing the access of government workers for “reasonable security practices and procedures.”

In recent years, India has even intervened with both Nokia and BlackBerry, ensuring that their own monitoring systems were in place. The new country-wide system has been under construction for two years and offers investigative agencies a single point of access to all citizens’ digital exchanges as well as location data. Pavan Duggal, a specialist in cyberlaw told the Times of India that the system is “capable of tremendous abuse.” He noted that there wasn’t much clarity from the government yet on what it intends to monitor for.

Filed under: Internet

Comments

Via: The Register

Source: Times of India

Cisco Meraki Launches “Presence”, With Facebook Account Log-In To Wireless Networks

Posted by Gsurface on May 8, 2013 No comments

Cisco Meraki has launched a new service called Presence that provides data about mobile behavior across location and automatic login to wireless hotspots using a person’s Facebook account.
TechCrunch

Snoop Dogg launches new mobile photo app, ‘ya dig?!’

Posted by Gsurface on May 7, 2013 No comments

The rapper’s “Snoopify” app is jumping on the sticker train, coming complete with images of diamond encrusted chains, joints, and popular Snoop catch-phrases like “Fo Shizzle.” [Read more]

Amazon Appstore launches in China, continues its world tour

Posted by Gsurface on May 6, 2013 No comments

Amazon let its world domination plans be known last month when it asked developers to start submitting apps to line its virtual displays in more countries. While China was notably absent from immediate expansion plans, Amazon launched its Appstore there during the weekend, opening the doors to one of the biggest mobile device markets. As Reuters notes, the Google Play store is available in China, but only serves up free material, whereas Amazon’s Appstore has a selection of both free and paid software available for users. While the company launched its e-book store and e-reader apps in China last December, devices are still waiting for their ticket over. Now, with the release of the Appstore, we suspect it’s only a matter of time before the Kindle and Fire ranges make fashionably late appearances.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Software, Mobile, Amazon

Comments

Via: Reuters

Source: Amazon

Amazon Launches Appstore and Developer Web Site In China

Posted by Gsurface on May 6, 2013 No comments

Amazon quietly launched its Appstore in China this weekend in a surprise move that paves the way for the rollout of Kindle devices in that country. At the same time, Amazon also debuted its Chinese-language Web site for developers (link via Google Translate), promising that they will soon have access to customers in 200 countries. A Sina Tech article (link via Google Translate) outlined why the Amazon Appstore might be an attractive alternative to Google Play for Chinese developers. Reasons include: easier access (Google Play isn’t widely available in China and most developers sell through third-party app stores); a more open and “friendly” environment (the article cited Kongregate’s 2011 ban as an example of problems with Google Play’s TOS); a worldwide customer base; and an attractive revenue sharing model. China had not been included in the list of 200 countries, including Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, that Amazon recently said it would bring the Appstore to. In addition to the Kindle reading app and e-books, messaging apps are currently available for download, as well as popular games like Angry Birds and Temple Run. Amazon says it will offer popular games and apps from Chinese developers like Tencent and Sina. The launch of the Amazon Appstore in China comes less than a month after the company rolled out Cloud Drive there. The Kindle Store was launched in China at the end of last year, at the same time the Kindle iPhone and iPad apps became available to download for users in that country. There have been years of speculation that Amazon will finally release Kindle hardware in China, but the launch of its Amazon Appstore there is the most concrete step so far. Another clue is the possibility that a $ 99 Kindle Fire 7″ tablet will begin shipping this year. The low price point would help the device compete in China, where tablets are often sold for less than $ 100.
TechCrunch

With Over 15M Sites Built, Weebly Launches New Planner And Mobile Editor, Brings Website Creation Service To Android

Posted by Gsurface on May 4, 2013 No comments

In this day and age, if you own a small business, you need a web (and mobile) presence. It’s just the way it is. Some might opt just to go for a social media approach, a Twitter account and a Facebook page, but the likelihood is that you want something a little more flexible, high-quality and something that gives you more control over the user experience. More and more, people are turning to Wix and Weebly. The two big “W’s” in the website creator world. For those unfamiliar, Weebly is a service that lets you, your mom, grandmother, four-year-old cousin and anyone you know create a quality website for free. Launched out of Y Combinator in 2007, Weebly has had over 15 million sites created using its service to date, which collectively attract more than 100 million unique visitors each month. This week, Weebly has kicked its service up a notch with an all-new overhaul to its website builder — one that’s been a year in the making — and the launch of an interactive “Site Planner.” This new site planner is designed to help give people ideas and a little lightbulb-style inspiration that will help them walk through the creative process and vision for the site. Plus, Weebly now offers an HTML5 site creator that offers new themes and pre-fab building blocks to customize their new site, and, most importantly, a new mobile new editor that helps them optimize their site for mobile devices, along with a now-globally available Android app. In the lead-up to the big launch, co-founder David Rusenko tells us, Weebly surveyed several million consumers and found that about 56 percent of them, understandably, don’t trust a business that doesn’t have a website. And, yet, 58 percent of businesses don’t have a website. Pretty eye-opening in today’s world, when over a billion people are on Facebook and hundreds of millions have so much computing power in their pockets. Ask the Weebly founders who their core audience is and they’ll tell you, proudly, that it’s entrepreneurs — people who are trying to build their own small businesses, across every industry, not just techies. And, regardless of technical proficiency, the problem that most small business owners struggle with is how daunting it can be to face that blinking cursor, the blank page. It’s the same issue we scribblers deal with in cases of “writer’s block.” When building websites,
TechCrunch

Tiptop Speakers Launches On Kickstarter To Take Advantage Of Your Room’s Natural Acoustics

Posted by Gsurface on May 3, 2013 No comments

Look over to one of the upper corners of the room you’re in. What’s there? If you’re like me, probably nothing.

Three Stanford product design majors are building a speaker to take advantage of the wasted space and natural acoustics of the corners of your room. The Tiptop speaker is a small pyramid that can stand alone or fits into a mold made for the upper corners of a room.
TechCrunch

Zoho Launches Card Scanner With Direct CRM Integration

Posted by Gsurface on May 2, 2013 No comments

Zoho has a new Card Scanner app for iOS for its SaaS platform that allows a customer to take a photo of a business card and have that data stored in the Zoho CRM or as a new contact. The app scans business cards in English, French, German and Spanish. An Android app is coming soon. Zoho developed the app to help sales people save time on manual data entry. Cards get left on a desk, never to be looked at again. Automating the process gives the customer a simple way to add to a contact or lead list. Zoho Evangelist Raju Vegesna said in an email interview that the data is synced to the CRM back end. If a business card contains a Twitter handle, Zoho pulls the photo from the user’s Twitter account and syncs it with the CRM system. The data can not be exported from Card Scanner but it can be exported in different ways after getting added to the CRM database. Vegesna said they plan to eventually offer exporting directly from Card Scanner. Tight integration with the Zoho CRM system is what is unique about this app, said Vegesna. He said it’s true there are plenty of apps out there that do card scanning. But it’s not something that gets integrated into CRM platforms, such as Salesforce.com or Sugar CRM. There are plenty of mobile apps for card scanning. Evernote Hello offers card scanning and tightly integrates it with LinkedIn and the relevant associated services people use every day, including their email and calendar. CamCard is known for its ability to process lots of cards and export to Excel. It’s true that CRM vendors do not have card scanning integrations and so Zoho’s in-line capability to scan and store data is useful. But existing apps in the market like Evernote provide depth that Zoho will find hard to match.
TechCrunch

Virgin Media launches VIP unlimited mobile plans, starting at £15 SIM-only

Posted by Gsurface on May 1, 2013 No comments

Virgin Media doles out many minutes and data to mobile users with its Premiere plan, but it hasn’t had a truly unlimited option for those who don’t want to even think about their calling habits. It’s assuaging those minds today with new VIP tiers that offer unlimited domestic voice, data and text messaging. The exact perks depend on the level of commitment, however. Traditional customers can pay £26 per month (£31 if they’re not already Virgin customers) with promises of unlimited calls to frequently costly 08 numbers. For SIM-only customers, it’s all about the price — while they don’t get the 08 number exception, the £15 they pay per month for otherwise unlimited access is comparatively cheap. The new rates may not always make sense depending on local coverage and a desire for LTE, but we’d at least keep them in mind.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

Comments

Source: Virgin Media (1), (2)

Justin Kitch launches ‘Curious’ learning network (podcast)

Posted by Gsurface on May 1, 2013 No comments

Curious.com, a new video learning network, links experts and learners with enhanced tools. [Read more]

Amazon Web Services launches new certification program

Posted by Gsurface on May 1, 2013 No comments

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a Global Certification Program, which will allow solutions architects, systems operations administrators, and developers to get proof of their cloud know-how.
Computerworld News

Microsoft Launches Preview Of Skype For Outlook.com

Posted by Gsurface on April 30, 2013 No comments

Microsoft has announced that it is launching a preview of Skype for Outlook.com starting in the UK. The service will be made available in the U.S. and Germany in the coming weeks before it is rolled out to the rest of the world.

Paidpiper Launches At Disrupt NY, Letting You Pay For Others’ Purchases In Stores

Posted by Gsurface on April 29, 2013 No comments

Paidpiper launched at Disrupt NY today, aiming to make your physical wallet, and presence, less necessary — in a good way.

Paidpiper aims to solve that problem with its consumer-facing app, Ok’d. Using Ok’d, you can walk into a store, snap a picture of a product, and send it to a friend, parent, employer, etc. and ask them to pay for it.
TechCrunch

Minecraft creator launches browser-based Drop, makes us wish we’d taken touch-typing lessons

Posted by Gsurface on April 29, 2013 No comments

Must try harder.

Filed under: Gaming, Internet

Comments

Via: Joystiq

Source: Drop, @Notch (Twitter)

Beyond The Box Launches A TweetDeck For Sports To Bring Realtime News And Analysis To Your iPad

Posted by Gsurface on April 28, 2013 No comments

Like many avid sports fans, Shailo Rao, Sagar Savant and Vam Makam are well-familiar with how frustrating it can be to find quality, relevant sports content — especially on Twitter and other social media. Rao tells me over coffee that, as a PhD student at Stanford, he spent years trying to create and maintain a single realtime feed of content he actually cared about. Because no company or publication was addressing this at the time, he was forced to manually curate a huge roster of RSS feeds from his favorite websites and Twitter accounts.
TechCrunch

Wonderville Launches An Interactive Content Library And Virtual Classroom Network For Kids

Posted by Gsurface on April 28, 2013 No comments

Last July, a group of veteran executives from eToys, eBay, Sesame Street, Discovery and Disney unveiled their ambitious plan to create a souped-up Khan Academy for kids. But rather than a straightforward port, the learning platform, called Wonderville, aimed to expand on Khan’s approach to the “flipped classroom” by aggregating educational content from a variety of third-party sources.

Backed By Travel Veterans, Superfly Launches A “Mailbox For Travel” As It Shifts From Metasearch Into Big Data

Posted by Gsurface on April 26, 2013 No comments

Superfly launched at TechCrunch Disrupt SF in 2010 with plans to become the Mint.com of travel, or more specifically, for your rewards and frequent flier miles and travel spending. Following Kayak’s lead, over time, the startup added metasearch capabilities, integrating rewards and points into the flight booking process. Its approach attracted ex-Kayak CFO Bill Smith, who began advising the startup after leaving Kayak before its IPO.
TechCrunch

Microsoft launches Bing Offers to round up local bargains, gives Bing Deals the axe

Posted by Gsurface on April 26, 2013 No comments

Call it a deal, offer or a bargain — isn’t a discount by any name just as sweet? Microsoft seems to think so, and it recently retired Bing Deals in favor of a locally focused newcomer: Bing Offers. Like its predecessor, Offers culls discounts from a number of sources, but rather than pulling deals from all over the web it focuses on group-discount bargains from outfits like Livingsocial, Groupon and Homerun. The aggregator spreads the discounts across the standard categories: food activities, health and fitness, beauty, travel and retail / services. Although the name has changed, a Microsoft spokesperson told TechCrunch that Offers is essentially the latest update to Bing Deals, noting that the site has gone through “a number of iterations” since it launched in 2011. Hit the source link to start pinching pennies.

Filed under: Internet

Comments

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Bing Offers

NASA launches new nanosatellites: Android smartphones

Posted by Gsurface on April 25, 2013 No comments

NASA has launched three Google-HTC Nexus One smartphones into space in what scientists hope will be the lowest-cost satellites ever tested.
Computerworld News

FitBark, the FitBit for dogs, launches on Kickstarter

Posted by Gsurface on April 25, 2013 No comments

The product allows users to track the physical activity of their pets and make sure they’re being walked when they should be. [Read more]

H.Bloom Online Flower Delivery Service Launches An iPhone App For Every Flavor Of Gift Giving

Posted by Gsurface on April 25, 2013 No comments

H.Bloom, the same service that makes you look like a superhero by delivering floral arrangements to your work which you can then deliver to your lady friend like a boss, is today launching an iPhone app. The app ties in with Hbloom’s existing online service, but gives users an easy native way to place gift orders on the go. Along with Hbloom’s standard floral arrangements, users will also be able to choose from chocolates, cupcakes, candles, and macaroons. HBloom will only be personally responsible for the flowers, as the company has partnered with other vendors like Sprinkles Cupcakes, Astro Doughnuts, and Niven Morgan to provide the other wares. Here’s what Emily Dubner, director of consumer at H.Bloom, had to say: Gifting has become stressful and time-consuming in recent years with an overabundance of options available. Our new app solves this problem by providing a one-stop shop where people can find high-quality, thoughtful gifts very quickly. We feel confident that the app will see great traction in each of our local markets. H.loom has made a name for itself alongside big-name companies like 1-800-Flowers by getting creative not just with the arrangements themselves, but with the notion of sending flowers as gifts. While most services ask you to choose an arrangement, delivery date, and address, Hbloom gives the user a few different options. You can get the hero package, which I mentioned above, letting you deliver fresh flowers yourself. Users can also choose to plan ahead by ordering the Superhero package, which includes three separate arrangements delivered to your office on the days of your choosing. That way, you can bang ‘em out three days in a row and be the gift that keeps on giving, or split them up among major relationship holidays to always be prepared. The app has a clean interface with easy navigation through the world of gift-giving. To develop the app, Hbloom tapped Two Toasters development firm likely with some of the cash from its recent $ 10 million funding round. If you’re interested in downloading the H.Bloom Gifts app, just head over to the App Store and download the app for free.
TechCrunch

Zalora Launches iOS App, No Word Of Android Yet

Posted by Gsurface on April 24, 2013 No comments

Zalora, Rocket Internet‘s fashion retail site, has launched an iOS app, as it seeks to capture the growing mobile base of users in Asia. The Zalora app was quietly released to the Apple App Store on the 17th of April before the wider announcement today, and was built by the company’s Singapore’s operations. It said last month it started building a regional software development center here to work on its Web platform and mobile apps, so it’s likely we’ll see more apps coming out for the store. The iOS app allows you to browse and buy items on the store organized by brand or category, and rate favorites as well. Zalora says the app’s catalog is pulled from the store’s various collections across its inventory for different countries, so it sounds like you might be able to view more items in the app than on its country-specific sites. Zalora is Singapore-based, and is barely a year old. It’s gone through an aggressive expansion in the region, and is in now eight markets in Asia: Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia and the Philippines. Given its focus on Asia, it’s curious that it decided to debut on the iPhone instead of Android phones, which are more popular in the region. According to a consumer study done in Southeast Asia by Ericsson, by the third quarter last year 31 percent of phones here were Android-based. The iPhone had about 19 percent of the overall handset market. One country does buck that trend, however. Zalora’s headquarters of Singapore has a 46 percent adoption of iOS, and just 29 percent for Android. Singapore has a smartphone penetration of around 90 to 92 percent, depending on who you ask, so those numbers are generally higher than neighboring countries. Zalora has also been diverting some resources to the mobile interface. This is its first native app, but it launched a mobile site in January. The company just scooped up $ 26 million (€20 million) in funding from German retail conglomerate Tengelmann Group. Its backer, Rocket Internet, is also German. The funding comes just half a year after it received an undisclosed sum from JP Morgan. We’ve reached out to Zalora for more details on its mobile strategy, and will update as we hear from it.
TechCrunch

Infor launches version 10x, plans IBM SmartCloud launch for its apps

Posted by Gsurface on April 22, 2013 No comments

Infor is hoping a new social collaboration tool, updated middleware and user interfaces, as well as options for cloud-based deployments, will help cement its place as one of the industry's largest ERP (enterprise resource planning) vendors after SAP and Oracle.
Computerworld News

Google Launches Google Earth Pro 7.1 With New Viewshed Visualization Tool And Improved Printing Options

Posted by Gsurface on April 22, 2013 No comments

Just in time for Earth Day, Google just launched version 7.1 of Google Earth Pro, the professional version of Google’s desktop based mapping tool. The new version adds a number of map making and advanced printing tools that will make it easier for business to create legends and scales for their maps and to add titles to them. The new Viewshed tool now also allows users to identify and calculate viewpoints and sightlines from any placemark you set in Google Earth. Google Launches Google Earth Pro 7.1 With New Viewshed Visualization Tool And Improved Printing Options As Google notes, the Viewshed tool allows users to, for example, see the visual impact of a building project on surrounding properties or to evaluate the coverage area of a cell phone tower. The tool simply covers areas that can be seen from this spot in green and marks everything that’s not visible from there in gray. The new advanced printing option, Google says, give users more control over the layout and style of the maps they create. Users can now, for example, add title and description boxes to their maps, as well as a north arrow, legend and a legend. Users can now also add an HTML area to their maps, which allows them to add images, text and other additional information to their maps. All of this, of course, can also be exported into a PDF file. Also new in this version is the ability to desaturate the base imagery or make it black and white to draw more attention to your own icons and paths. To celebrate Earth Day, Google is making this new version available for $ 199 instead of $ 399 for the next 24 hours (promo code: EARTHDAY199).
TechCrunch

PromiseUP Launches To Gamify Your Promises So That You’ll Keep Them

Posted by Gsurface on April 22, 2013 No comments

PromiseUp, a new iOS app that sees its full launch today, has a simple but rather lofty mission: To make people keep their promises, and ultimately, make the world a better place. It hopes to achieve this with a mixture of social and gamification in which users earn (or lose) virtual currency depending on whether or not they keep the promises they make to one another.

Cox TV Connect for Android launches, brings live TV streaming to ‘select’ tablets

Posted by Gsurface on April 21, 2013 No comments

We’re still waiting to see Cox’s next generation cable TV-to-mobile streaming app, but right now it’s released a version of its existing Cox TV Connect app for Android. Available on iPads since the end of 2011 and on iPhone / iPod touch since the end of last year, it’s finally made the trek to a “select” group of Android tablets, consisting of the Nexus 7 and Samsung Galaxy 2 / Galaxy Note slates. A support document also mentions Amazon’s Kindle Fire family, however the app isn’t in its store as of this posting. For those not familiar, it’s a free app for subscribers that lets them watch a selection of live TV channels while connected to their home wireless network, and view listings anywhere. We’ll be interested to see if the list of compatible (Android 4.0+) hardware grows quickly, or if users will need to wait for a port of the new app which adds personalization features tied into Cox’s Trio DVR platform.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Tablets, HD

Comments

Source: Google Play, Cox TV Communications (Twitter)

Russia launches animals into space on one-month journey

Posted by Gsurface on April 19, 2013 No comments

An intrepid critter crew of geckos, mice and gerbils and other animals launched into orbit Friday to begin a month-long Russian experiment to study how space travel affects living creatures.

FOX News

Facebook launches real-time graphs to highlight its data center efficiency

Posted by Gsurface on April 19, 2013 No comments

Curious as to the effect that your poking wars are having on the planet? Facebook is outing power and water usage data for its Oregon and North Carolina data centers to show off its sustainability chops. The information is updated in near-real time, and the company will add its Swedish facility to the charts as soon as it’s built. The stats for the Forest City, NC plant show a very efficient power usage effectiveness ratio of 1.09 — thanks, in part, to that balmy (North) Carolina air.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

Comments

Via: GigaOm

Source: Facebook, Open Compute Project

Just.me launches on iOS, aims to become your favorite messaging app

Posted by Gsurface on April 19, 2013 No comments

Apple’s App Store certainly doesn’t suffer from any shortages in the social apps department, but that’s not stopping the newly launched Just.me from attempting to work itself into the daily lives of iOS users. After about two years of being in the development stage, Just.me has finally matured and is now readily available on Cupertino’s platform, giving the iDevice crowd a messaging service that’s reminiscent of Facebook’s own chatty offering.

What makes Just.me slightly different, however, are many of the other built-in tidbits, such as a cloud storage feature that lets folks save conversations they’d rather keep private, as well as the ability to message just about anyone in your contacts list from within the application — even if they aren’t account holders. So, if you think you have the time to keep track of one more thing, Just.me is just a free download away.

Filed under: Software

Comments

Via: Reuters

Source: App Store

Twitter Launches the World’s Upteenth Online Music Site

Posted by Gsurface on April 18, 2013 No comments

Nerval’s Lobster writes “Twitter is plunging into the online music game. Twitter Music (or “Twitter #music,” in the company’s own rendering) uses Twitter activity such as Tweets and engagement “to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists,” according to an April 18 posting on Twitter’s official blog. Songs on the app derive from three sources: iTunes, Spotify, or Rdio. And yes, Twitter is big, but its victory is by no means assured: other IT giants have entered the same market only to watch highly-publicized projects wither away, doomed by some combination of audience apathy and implementation issues. Take Apple’s Ping, for example: launched in September 2010 as part of an iTunes update, the ambitious social-networking and music-recommendation engine immediately ran into a number of problems, including a lack of Facebook integration (despite Steve Jobs’ assurances to the contrary) and widespread reports of spam and fake accounts. Can Twitter’s effort stand out, or will it just be lost in all the noise?”

Facebook Launches Open Graph Mobile, Updated iOS SDK With Improved Login And Sharing

Posted by Gsurface on April 18, 2013 No comments

Facebook today unveiled three new products at its Mobile Developer Conference in NYC that will put the company on an even faster track to becoming a mobile-first platform. The company announced Open Graph mobile, which takes Facebook’s social graphing product to the mobile platform for the first time. Facebook is also improving Login via mobile, and releasing a new Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS. Alongside unveiling the latest initiatives toward a mobile-focused Facebook, the social network also released its latest figures for mobile, which include over 680 million mobile users and the fact that over 81 percent of iOS apps and 70 percent of top 100 grossing Android apps integrate with Facebook. In terms of Open Graph mobile, Facebook simply wants to make it easier for developers to integrate the Open Graph into their mobile apps, a feat that has proved difficult in the past. But with a new Object API, Facebook is cutting out the web server. “With the Object API, you can directly create Open Graph objects and no longer need to host webpages with Open Graph tags. This API is available for both mobile and web apps,” reads the press release. Facebook has also released an Object Browser, which is a visual interface that lets developers interact with their published object data. Alongside the Object Browser, you’ll also notice that Facebook has introduced a new object privacy model that improves sharing of user generated content within native apps. Past that, the company also released Native Share Dialog, a tool that lets users share experiences from native mobile apps without needing to log in to Facebook first. It also has built-in support for publishing Open Graph actions, so it makes sharing within developers’ apps much better “with just one line of code.” Where log-in is concerned, Facebook is launching a faster login dialog (20 percent faster, to be exact) that gives users more control over their permissions and privacy. Facebook realized a few months ago that their newest permission model on the FB platform was seeing a 5 percent increase in mobile conversions, and so they decided to bring that feature to their developers as well. Starting today, the new login dialog will automatically be applied to mobile and non-game web apps with no change required to the code. Last, but certainly not least, Facebook is launching the Facebook Technology Partners program to help developers leverage these new
TechCrunch

Yahoo launches Mail app for iPad, Android tablets

Posted by Gsurface on April 18, 2013 No comments

The Yahoo Mail app extends its reach to the iPad and Android tablets, while a new Yahoo Weather app showers down upon the iPhone. [Read more]

Read The Full Story
SlashGear

HAPIfork Kickstarter campaign officially launches

Posted by Gsurface on April 17, 2013 No comments

Way back during CES 2013 in January we took a look at an interesting piece of technology known as the HAPIfork. It’s essentially an electronic fork that warns you when you’re eating too fast, since that’s a sign that you’re consuming food at a faster rate than what you’re digestion system can keep up with.

HAPILABS launches HAPIfork Kickstarter campaign, we go hands-on and in-mouth

Posted by Gsurface on April 17, 2013 No comments

While the tech press was obsessively covering the onslaught of Ultra HD TVs and uncovering unlicensed celebrity headphones at CES 2013, the mainstream media were fawning over a fork. Now HAPIfork, the “smart” utensil with an altruistic mission and a healthy helping of tech baked-in, is taking to Kickstarter for funding — albeit two months later than originally reported. Starting today, the first 2,500 backers can get their hands on the Bluetooth-equipped fork for $ 89, with subsequent backers pitching in $ 99 for a device. Those who want to get in even earlier on the action can give $ 300 for a chance to be part of the beta program. The overall goal — aside from getting you to masticate at a reasonable clip — is set for $ 100,000 with fundraising ending May 31st. Devices are expected to ship to backers in Q3 and hit unspecified retail locations in the US and EU in Q4 this year.

We got our hands (and mouths) on a prototype that HAPILABS president Andrew Carton referred to as 95 percent final. To find out how our lunch with the vibrating fork (and the Ahi Tuna) went down, check out our impressions after the break.

Filed under: Household

Comments

Source: HAPILABS

HealthKeep Launches An Anonymous Social Network To Let You Share And Track Health Information

Posted by Gsurface on April 17, 2013 No comments

Services like HealthTap have proliferated over the last year as a way to let anyone with questions about their health connect with real, licensed physicians online and avoid the pain of waiting in line at the doctor’s office. While HealthTap and others are building up their health information databases to let people quickly find answers to a variety of health questions, the demand for personalized health information continues to grow.