mandag 1. februar 2010
AOL taper annen VP: Ralph Rivera, Vice President of AOL Spill og AOL latino
Midt i massive headcount kutt, en annen AOL exec er reiser det nylig uavhengige selskap. Ralph Rivera, tidligere Vice President of AOL Spill og AOL Latino, hvor han var ansvarlig for AOL portefølje av online casual spill og hjalp utvide sitt internasjonale rekkevidde, er avreise til å bli president i Major League Gaming. MLG er en liten, men voksende profesjonelle konkurransedyktige videospill liga. Rivera vil være i oppgave å lede digital strategi og online produktutvikling for voksende selskap. Major League Gaming har vist sterk vekst de siste årene. Selskapet hevder 10 millioner besøkende per måned, mer enn dobbelt fra et år siden, og 6 millioner videostrømmer. Selskapet har tatt $ 46 millioner i støtte siden oppstarten og har nylig kommet Doritos og Hot Pockets som reklame partnere.
En del Android, En del Pre: Alcatel kommende Android glideren fanget på video
Ta Palm Pre. Smash Android på den, legge til et par knapper, og kanskje tone ting ned i «God ser" avdeling litt. Vit hva du vil bli? Sannsynligvis ikke - fordi dette er første gang vi har sett den. Vi er ikke sikker på hvor de var lure da de fant den, men herrer over [...]
Cellphone traffic jam at the office? Spidercloud raises $40 million to fix that
Office workers now use their cellphones to get the job done, regardless of what phone system is actually installed in the workplace. But relying on a remote radio tower, one which could be miles away, to route the calls is a recipe for full-on fail. You can have five bars on your phone and still be unable to connect a call or run an app.
“Even perfect coverage does not always mean you have access to the needed capacity. That’s how Spidercloud VP of marketing Ronny Haraldsvik explained it in response to my questions about the company’s new second funding round of $25 million, led by Opus Capital. Previous investors Matrix Partners and Charles River Ventures also participated, along with new investor Shasta Ventures. The Santa-Clara based company’s management team have Cisco, Flarion, Juniper Networks, and Qualcomm on their résumés. They founded Spidercloud in 2006.
Spidercloud’s technology is a mini wireless phone network that can be set up inside an office building. It’s designed to mimic the well-known setup of an Ethernet network with Wi-Fi. The system consists of a bunch of access points, set up where they’re most needed, controllable from a single Web-based interface. Spidercloud calls it an Enterprise Radio Access Network, or E-RAN.
Haraldsvik says Spidercloud is in tests with two wireless carriers in Europe — they call them operators over there — to make Spidercloud part of that carrier’s offerings to business customers. The E-RAN’s 3G technology (it’s UTMS, if you care) would be compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile in America.
In the end, the actual sales of Spiderclout networks will be done by an enterprise network technology vendor. Think Ericssson or Cisco rather than Telefónica or AT&T. Presuming they pass testing, that’s a pretty good business model.
“Even perfect coverage does not always mean you have access to the needed capacity. That’s how Spidercloud VP of marketing Ronny Haraldsvik explained it in response to my questions about the company’s new second funding round of $25 million, led by Opus Capital. Previous investors Matrix Partners and Charles River Ventures also participated, along with new investor Shasta Ventures. The Santa-Clara based company’s management team have Cisco, Flarion, Juniper Networks, and Qualcomm on their résumés. They founded Spidercloud in 2006.
Spidercloud’s technology is a mini wireless phone network that can be set up inside an office building. It’s designed to mimic the well-known setup of an Ethernet network with Wi-Fi. The system consists of a bunch of access points, set up where they’re most needed, controllable from a single Web-based interface. Spidercloud calls it an Enterprise Radio Access Network, or E-RAN.
Haraldsvik says Spidercloud is in tests with two wireless carriers in Europe — they call them operators over there — to make Spidercloud part of that carrier’s offerings to business customers. The E-RAN’s 3G technology (it’s UTMS, if you care) would be compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile in America.
In the end, the actual sales of Spiderclout networks will be done by an enterprise network technology vendor. Think Ericssson or Cisco rather than Telefónica or AT&T. Presuming they pass testing, that’s a pretty good business model.
EV infrastructure on a roll — Coulomb bags $14M for charging stations
Companies working on ideas for charging and fueling green cars have been on a roll lately. The streak kicked off last Sunday with Better Place landing $350 million in equity, and continued with SunHydro touting plans to dot east coast highways with hydrogen fueling stations. Now Coulomb Technologies, provider of electric charging stations for plug-in vehicles, has gotten its turn, raising $14 million in a second round of venture funding.
All of these companies have been working out of the limelight for a while now — infrastructure isn’t as sexy as the cars themselves. Coulomb has quietly been installing its ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations one city at a time in North America and Europe. These machines, small enough to be bolted to a roadside street lamp, pump up to 240 volts of AC power or 500 volts of DC power, juicing up drivers’ batteries quick while they are on the go — all they have to do is swipe a ChargePoint card, just like a debit card.
But Coulomb says 2010 will be its breakout year, with plans to roll out thousands of new stations across many cities, and to establish footholds in Asia and South America. The recent funding, led by Voyager Capital and Rho Ventures, and including Siemens Venture Capital and Hartford Ventures, should give it the boost it needs to make this happen.
In addition to installing stations in one municipality at a time, the Campbell, Calif. company is also forging partnerships with companies who will make the technology available in their parking lots. Perhaps the biggest boon in this area was the deal with McDonalds to make charging stations accessible for fast food diners with plug-in vehicles. It also counts Dell, Reliant Energy, DTE Energy and Element Hotels among its strategic partners. In all, it provides charging stations to 120 clients, including cities.
The funding is yet another sign that electric vehicle infrastructure is finally attracting the attention it deserves. For a while, EV makers and enthusiasts alike have been wondering how wide adoption of these cars will occur without the necessary charging and fueling infrastructure already existing in the field. Last year, Coulomb snagged $3.8 million in a first round of funding. The fact that its latest fund raise tripled this amount is an extremely positive indicator of investor interest.
Now that infrastructure companies are starting to get the resources they need, it will be interesting to watch how competition between them plays out. Better Place, which started off pursuing a similar charging station concept, has switched its focus to battery-switching stations, where drivers could swap out depleted batteries for fully-charged models at designated points. This solution is intended to address charging wait times, which could still exceed a half hour with Coulomb’s stations. No would one want to wait a half hour at a gas station, is the thinking. That said, Coulomb is avoiding all of the red tape that comes with selling electricity directly, which is part of Better Place’s plan.
There is also hydrogen fuel cells to consider. With Toyota, Daimler, General Motors and Honda all working on hydrogen-powered cars, these models could present formidable competition for EVs. SunHydro, a startup planning to use solar energy to generate the hydrogen for fueling stations, seems to have a feasible, affordable plan. How much of the market will it carve out?
Estag Capital provided Coulomb’s first round of funding last year.
All of these companies have been working out of the limelight for a while now — infrastructure isn’t as sexy as the cars themselves. Coulomb has quietly been installing its ChargePoint Networked Charging Stations one city at a time in North America and Europe. These machines, small enough to be bolted to a roadside street lamp, pump up to 240 volts of AC power or 500 volts of DC power, juicing up drivers’ batteries quick while they are on the go — all they have to do is swipe a ChargePoint card, just like a debit card.
But Coulomb says 2010 will be its breakout year, with plans to roll out thousands of new stations across many cities, and to establish footholds in Asia and South America. The recent funding, led by Voyager Capital and Rho Ventures, and including Siemens Venture Capital and Hartford Ventures, should give it the boost it needs to make this happen.
In addition to installing stations in one municipality at a time, the Campbell, Calif. company is also forging partnerships with companies who will make the technology available in their parking lots. Perhaps the biggest boon in this area was the deal with McDonalds to make charging stations accessible for fast food diners with plug-in vehicles. It also counts Dell, Reliant Energy, DTE Energy and Element Hotels among its strategic partners. In all, it provides charging stations to 120 clients, including cities.
The funding is yet another sign that electric vehicle infrastructure is finally attracting the attention it deserves. For a while, EV makers and enthusiasts alike have been wondering how wide adoption of these cars will occur without the necessary charging and fueling infrastructure already existing in the field. Last year, Coulomb snagged $3.8 million in a first round of funding. The fact that its latest fund raise tripled this amount is an extremely positive indicator of investor interest.
Now that infrastructure companies are starting to get the resources they need, it will be interesting to watch how competition between them plays out. Better Place, which started off pursuing a similar charging station concept, has switched its focus to battery-switching stations, where drivers could swap out depleted batteries for fully-charged models at designated points. This solution is intended to address charging wait times, which could still exceed a half hour with Coulomb’s stations. No would one want to wait a half hour at a gas station, is the thinking. That said, Coulomb is avoiding all of the red tape that comes with selling electricity directly, which is part of Better Place’s plan.
There is also hydrogen fuel cells to consider. With Toyota, Daimler, General Motors and Honda all working on hydrogen-powered cars, these models could present formidable competition for EVs. SunHydro, a startup planning to use solar energy to generate the hydrogen for fueling stations, seems to have a feasible, affordable plan. How much of the market will it carve out?
Estag Capital provided Coulomb’s first round of funding last year.
Coming soon to your PlayStation 3: Reality TV
Sony is announcing today that it will launch an original reality TV series on its PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable game devices.
The show is an eight-episode series called The Tester and it is about a bunch of gamers who compete to get a job as a game tester at Sony’s U.S. game division in San Diego, as well as a $5,000 signing bonus. It’s part of Sony’s push to create “original digital” content to make its games consoles more broadly appealing.
The series will air on the PlayStation Network from Feb. 18 to April 8. The show will feature a prestigious panel of judges, including comedian Hal Sparks and video game designer David Jaffe (of God of War and Twisted Metal fame). It is being produced in partnership with 51 Minds, the company behind reality TV shows Rock of Love and The Surreal Life.
The original programming is part of a growing catalog of entertainment offerings on the PlayStation Network. The PSN has more than 19,000 movies and TV shows, digital comics, games, and add-on game content available via broadband delivery to a PS 3 or PlayStation Portable handheld.
In the show, 11 contestants will compete for the job by performing real-life events such as playing paintball, shooting giant slingshots, and becoming “human hamster balls.” Cast members range in age from 22 to 36 years old; the contestants include a student, a paramedic, and a used car salesman. The host of the show is Meredith Molinari, a model and host of multiple online music shows. Besides Jaffe and Sparks, judges include Brent Gocke, a manager of game testers at Sony; John Hight, director of product development for God of War; and Petro Piaseckyj, managing producer for international software at Sony.
Online, viewers can watch the show episodes inside the virtual theater of Sony’s Home virtual world on the PlayStation 3.
The show is an eight-episode series called The Tester and it is about a bunch of gamers who compete to get a job as a game tester at Sony’s U.S. game division in San Diego, as well as a $5,000 signing bonus. It’s part of Sony’s push to create “original digital” content to make its games consoles more broadly appealing.
The series will air on the PlayStation Network from Feb. 18 to April 8. The show will feature a prestigious panel of judges, including comedian Hal Sparks and video game designer David Jaffe (of God of War and Twisted Metal fame). It is being produced in partnership with 51 Minds, the company behind reality TV shows Rock of Love and The Surreal Life.
The original programming is part of a growing catalog of entertainment offerings on the PlayStation Network. The PSN has more than 19,000 movies and TV shows, digital comics, games, and add-on game content available via broadband delivery to a PS 3 or PlayStation Portable handheld.
In the show, 11 contestants will compete for the job by performing real-life events such as playing paintball, shooting giant slingshots, and becoming “human hamster balls.” Cast members range in age from 22 to 36 years old; the contestants include a student, a paramedic, and a used car salesman. The host of the show is Meredith Molinari, a model and host of multiple online music shows. Besides Jaffe and Sparks, judges include Brent Gocke, a manager of game testers at Sony; John Hight, director of product development for God of War; and Petro Piaseckyj, managing producer for international software at Sony.
Online, viewers can watch the show episodes inside the virtual theater of Sony’s Home virtual world on the PlayStation 3.
Facebook har nå Yahoo i sine områder, som allerede er større i antall sidevisninger (ComScore)
Facebook er godt på vei til å ta Yahoo's spot som den tredje største Web eiendom i verden. (Google og Microsoft er nr. 1 og nr. 2, henholdsvis). Sist sommer Facebook tok nr. 4 spot globalt, fortrenger AOL, men ifølge comScore var det fremdeles anslagsvis 241 millioner unike besøkende i måneden som skiller det fra nr. 3 området, Yahoo. I desember 2009, trange at gapet til 125 millioner unike brukere globalt. (Det var også den samme måneden Facebook passerte AOL i USA til å ta nr. 4 spot innenlands). I desember 2009, Facebook tiltrukket 469 millioner unike besøkende, en økning på utrolige 31 millioner besøkende fra måneden før. For å sette det i perspektiv, i en enkelt måned Facebook har fått så mange nye besøkende som Yahoo gjorde hele året. At én måned gevinst var også tilsvarende legge til så mange mennesker som alle Digg eller halvparten av Twitter.com. I mellomtiden mistet Yahoo 7 millioner unike besøkende fra november til desember til slutten av året på 594 millioner unike besøkende.
BlueKai Hever $ 21 millioner for Online Target-Marketing Data Exchange
BlueKai, en auksjon-baserte data exchange, har tjente NOK 21 millioner i støtte fra GGV Capital, Redpoint Ventures og Battery Ventures. Denne runde med finansiering bringer oppstart er totalbudsjettet til 35 millioner dollar. Lansert i 2008, BlueKai samler data fra shopping og forskning aktiviteter på tvers av Internett og gir disse dataene på etterspørselen etter markedsførere, annonsenettverk eller utgivere å øke kvaliteten og omfanget av deres annonse målretting initiativer. Data kjøpere inkluderer mange av de ti beste amerikanske online annonsenettverk. Den nye finansieringen vil bli brukt til videre produktutvikling. Spesielt er BlueKai ønsker å innlemme realtime teknologi i plattformen sin.
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