Monthly Archives: November 2008
Got Windows Mobile Or Symbian Series 60? Get Skyfire Now.
Sprint is my mobile phone provider and I have iPhone-envy. This envy is not enough for me to switch to AT&T and pay large sums of money for minutes and data. I’m still sporting the Moto Q, a phone built with Windows Mobile and was released in 2006. The biggest difference between the Safari and the iPhone and Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile is rendering capabilities.
Internet Explorer is inferior to Safari in terms of loading the full websites of WordPress’ admin, YouTube, Hulu, Digg, etc. Many of these websites are building Windows Mobile Internet Explorer friendly services, but have scaled back tremendously on the full features of the site.
Enter Skyfire, a browser that is able to load everything that your PC or Mac browser can. Skyfire is able to load Flash, Silverlight, Ajax, and QuickTime. If anyone were to ask me which two applications are must downloads for Windows Mobile, I would say Skyfire and Google Maps.
This software is a big deal because it makes Windows Mobile users not feel obsolete anymore.
Skyfire was started by Nitin Bhandari (CEO) and Erik Swenson (CTO) in April 2006. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and Trinity Ventures invested $17.8 million in Skyfire.
Categories Skyfire
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Blockbuster Launches Service To Download Movies
Blockbuster Inc. (NYSE:BBI) is constantly battling with the nimble Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX). Blockbuster has been trying several strategic moves in an effort to regain investor confidence. These moves includes setting up a mail order rental service and making an offer to acquire Circuit City. Blockbuster’s stock price is continuously dwindling and now their market cap is a mere $229 million.
Blockbuster’s next move is a movie and TV show direct download service. Anyone that signs up for 25 movies in advance for the cost of $99 will receive a free MediaPoint Digital Media Player. The Digital Media Player will allow users to directly download movies and TV shows and watch them on a computer or TV.
Movie rentals are $1.99 and the movies are DVD quality. The MediaPoint player has an HDMI output connection for crystal clear video enthusiasts.
“The MediaPoint digital player, featuring BLOCKBUSTER ONDEMAND, is entertainment made easy. We are bringing Blockbuster, and the thousands of movies in our digital library, straight to customers’ televisions,” stated Blockbuster Chairman and CEO Jim Keyes. “The player is simple to use, delivers DVD quality video, and there’s no monthly subscription commitment. We are delighted to team with 2Wire to give consumers this great entertainment product.”
Categories Blockbuster, Blockbuster Inc.
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Microsoft Currently In Talks To Acquire Yahoo!’s Search Business For $20 Billion
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) are supposedly in talks once again. Microsoft is rumored to be wanting to buy out Yahoo!’s online search business for $20 billion. The acquisition would bring a Microsoft management team to take control of Yahoo! Jonathan Miller, former AOL CEO is believed to be brought on the combined management team.
Carl Icahn recently bought an additional 7 million shares of Yahoo! this past week which indicates that something big may be happening soon. Jerry Yang also recently stepped down from the CEO position and is searching for a replacement.
Microsoft would setup a $5 billion facility for Miller and Ross Levinsohn, former President of FOX Interactive Media to run Yahoo! These two would also raise an additional $5 billion from external investors. Microsoft would have operating control of the search business for 10 years. Microsoft would also be given a two-year call option to buy Yahoo!’s search business for $20 billion. Yahoo! would be left with it’s e-mail, messaging, and content services.
[Source: Times Online UK]
Categories Carl Icahn, Microsoft Corporation, Yahoo!
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Twitter As A Mumbai Tragedy News Source
The tragedy that took the lives of about 150 people in Mumbai, India is the second time I’ve heard of a time where terrorists planned such a sophisticated act of destruction, the first being 9/11. Terrorists coordinated a series of 10 attacks in India’s largest city. The attacks have lasted 3 days thus far. The locations of the attacks includes the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station, two five-star hotels, the Oberoi Trident, Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Leopold Café, a restaurant in Colaba, the Cama Hospital, the Orthodox Jewish-owned Nariman House, Metro Adlabs movie theater, and police headquarters.
Throughout the news coverage investigations of this event, users on Twitter have been anxiously tweeting away what they have heard using the symbol: #mumbai. This makes it easy for users to search the most recent events on Twitter Search.
Anytime a major event occurs in the world, Twitter is one of the first social media sites to break the news. I’ve seen people report an earthquake in California before any other major news agency.
Twitter plays an important role in globalization. I did not really get it before, but now I do. “This is where social media grows up,” wrote ZDNet’s Jennifer Leggio.
Categories Twitter
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Carl Icahn Buys Almost 7 Million Additional Shares In Yahoo!
Carl Icahn, board member of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has decided to buy millions of additional share in the search engine company. Now Carl Icahn owns 75.6 million shares. According to paidContent, Icahn “acquired 3,697,181 shares at $9.7988 per share Monday, 2,704,780 shares at $9.9678 Tuesday, and another 376,843 shares at $9.9988 Wednesday.” Icahn now owns 5.5% of Yahoo!
Three Possible Reasons Why:
Why would Icahn buy so many shares when so many people are wanting to cash out as Yahoo!’s stock is steadily declining? AllThingsD believes that the investment may be related to an upcoming CEO selection that Icahn favors.
Another theory is that Icahn believes in the long-term prospects of the search engine company. Even without a Microsoft acquisition and a Google partnership, Yahoo! could still turn around. Icahn is still on a quest to strike some sort of deal with Microsoft even if it is a search engine partnership. Yahoo! has been through a lot of downs this year, perhaps we’ll see them become more aggressive.
And then of course there is the basic rule of finance: Buy low, sell high. Icahn bought all of the additional shares at under $10. When Microsoft made the bid to acquire Yahoo! earlier this year, the stock jumped up to nearly $30. Today Yahoo! closed at around $11.51 so the investment is already starting to pay-off.
Categories Carl Icahn, Yahoo!
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MySpace BlackBerry App Downloaded By Over 400,000 In First Week
News Corporation (NYSE:NWS.A) subsidiary MySpace and Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM) have seen a large number of downloads of the MySpace for BlackBerry application. In the first week of availability, the MySpace for BlackBerry application was downloaded by over 400,000 people. Through the application, over 15 million messages and 2 million statues have been updated in the first week as well.
“We established an innovative and collaborative partnership with RIM to address a key desire of consumers to have greater mobile connectivity and interaction with their friends and the global community at large,” stated Chris DeWolfe, co-founder and CEO of MySpace. “This record shows just how much of a force in the mobile consumer space RIM and MySpace have become.”
The application can be downloaded from www.blackberry.com/myspace or m.myspace.com from a BlackBerry phone browser.
“This rapid adoption is a reflection of an evolving consumer lifestyle where social connectivity and information access are more important than ever,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-Chief Executive Officer at Research In Motion. “This powerful new mobile application combines social networking and mobility in a highly personalized and empowering manner and we are very excited to see such a positive response in the first week.”
Categories MySpace, Research In Motion
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Justin.tv Being Investigated By Florida Police
Justin.tv, the live streaming video web service is being investigated by police in Florida. The police is determined to find out what Justin.tv’s role was in the suicide case of a teenager last week. Abraham Biggs Jr. wrote that he was going to kill himself with prescription drugs on a live webcam streaming on Justin.tv.
Several members of the discussion board called the police. The police showed up about 12 hours after Biggs posted his first note on bodybuilding.com. After Biggs died on live video, some of the most disturbing comments started appearing and Justin.tv deleted the video. The Pembroke Pines Police Department are looking into the role that the members of Justin.tv played in the suicide case.
“We regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time,” stated Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel.
InformationWeek also points out that in several cases, including in the state of New York, “anyone who advises someone to commit suicide can be charged with manslaughter.”
Categories Justin.TV
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Rumor: Facebook Wanted To Buy Twitter For $500 Million In Stock
According to Kara Swisher, Facebook wanted to buy Twitter for $500 million in stock. But the talks ended about 3 weeks ago when Evan Williams, founder of Twitter turned them down. Zuckerberg stated that he’s “really impressed by what they’ve done” at Twitter at the Web 2.0 Summit. Twitter is “a very elegant model.”
Some of the concerns regarding the transaction included how much Facebook’s stock was actually worth. Another concern was how the integration and cost structuring would work. Twitter also still does not seem to have a revenue plan.
Zuckerberg is also impressed with how Twitter has been able to take over the “status update” market. Many Facebook users update their status via Twitter, including myself.
To date, Twitter has raised $20 million in funding giving them a $98 million valuation. Twitter’s investors include Union Square Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Digital Garage, Spark Capital, and Bezos Expeditions. Marc Andreessen and Ron Conway are also investors in Twitter. Andreessen currently serves on the Board of Directors at Facebook.
The $500 million offer would have been based on Microsoft’s $15 billion valuation of Facebook. This figure was based on Microsoft’s $240 million investment in the social network.
Categories Facebook, Twitter
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Federated Media Loses GigaOm and Drops CPM Rates
Federated Media is an advertising broker partner for many top tech tier sites. They power the advertising for TechCrunch, Silicon Alley Insider, Mashable, You’re the man now dog, AppleInsider, ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, TechDirt, etc. To date, Federated Media has raised $57.5 million.
Federated Media (FM) has lost a number of partners to acquisitions and poaching. Digg was a partner of FM before Microsoft signed a deal with them. Ars Technica was a partner of FM before Condé Nast bought them out. Another Federated ad partner, Sphere was picked up by AOL.
Now GigaOm will be stepping down from FM to sign with IDG Group. IDG’s Network includes CIO, Computerworld, JavaWorld, Linuxworld, Macworld, PC World, etc.
In related news, Federated Media is also slashing advertising rates in order to adapt to rough economic advertising conditions. TechCrunch’s CPM has been dropped from $36 to $23.40. Silicon Alley Insider’s weekly square button ads have been dropped from $630 to $409.50.
Categories Federated Media, GigaOM
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