Monthly Archives: May 2009
The Princeton Review Releases iPhone App Sat Vocab Challenge
The Princeton Review, Inc. (NASDAQ:REVU) has decided to get into the iPhone application market. Earlier this week, the tutoring company released an application called the SAT Vocab Challenge. The application tests users with the ability to comprehend 250 words, including The Princeton Review’s Hit Parade. The Hit Parade is a list of 100 words that often times appear on the SAT exam.
“Vocabulary building is one of the easiest, most effective ways to improve an SAT score, but it requires time and discipline on the part of the student,” stated The Princeton Review VP/Publisher Robert Franek. “The revolutionary iPhone and iPod touch have enabled us to strip away the typical barriers to study so students can carry hundreds of need-to-know words with them everywhere they go, and challenge themselves with fast-paced drills for a meaningful study session, whether they have five free minutes or an entire weekend.”
The Princeton Review was able to put together the application with the help of Modality. The SAT Vocab Challenge sells for $4.99 [iTunes link] and has features such as timed challenges to test users on a word’s connotations, synonyms, antonyms, and the definition. The performance of the student is tracked by the application and there is audio pronunciation of each word.
[via PRNewsWire]
Categories Apple App Store, Apple iPhone, Apple iPod Touch, Modality, The Princeton Review
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Dmitriy Guzner Pleads Guilty Over Hacking Scientology Websites
[Church of Scientology logo]
The hacker behind the infiltration of the Church of Scientology website has pleaded guilty. The man involved was a 19 year old in New Jersey. The attack was launched in January 2008 and he caused Scientology websites to go offline for a day.
Dmitriy Guzner is the name of the man behind the hack attacks. He pleaded guilty to the charges of computer hacking as he caused a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) on the Scientology websites.
Guzner was part of an underground society of hackers known as Anonymous. Guzner himself was the main culprit behind the DDoS.
[via LAT]
Categories Church of Scientology, Dmitriy Guzner
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Greg Canessa Leaves PopCap Games To Join Blizzard Entertainment
Greg Canessa is the former VP of PopCap Games. Earlier this week he announced that he will be stepping down from PopCap to join Blizzard Entertainment. His position at Blizzard is currently a mystery.
Blizzard Entertainment produces World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo. At PopCap, Canessa was responsible for bringing their games to Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, the iPhone, and the Nintendo DS.
“We are sorry to see him go and we wish him the very best,” stated Garth Chouteau, executive at PopCap. “It’s been a pleasure working with him and his move is largely predicated on it being a big personal and professional opportunity for him. This isn’t going to have any material impact on our console presence and our strategy with respect to the consoles and the DS and the areas that Greg was heading up. We’re still very committed to those.”
[via Ars Technica]
Solar Bullet LLC Makes High Speed Rail Proposal For Tucson To Phoenix Commute
Solar Bullet LLC has made a proposal to build a 220MPH high speed train powered by solar energy. The train tracks would stretch from Tucson to Phoenix. This would make the commute happen in 30 minutes flat. President Obama recently announced a plan for 10 potential rail corridors to have high speed trains built.
Given that the train will be between two main cities and is powered by the sun, this would reduce the need for carbon-spewing cars around the area. Solar Bullet LLC was founded by Bill Gaither and Raymond Wright. They also have proposals for stations that include Chandler, Maricopa, Casa Grande, Eloy, Red Rock, and Marana in Arizona. They also have a plan for reaching Mexico City. The train would require 110 megawatts of electricity to run and it would be generated by solar panels installed above the train tracks. The whole project would cost $28 billion.
Categories Bill Gaither, Raymond Wright, Solar Bullet LLC
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Zeevex Xtreme Online Game Card To Hit 20,000 Retail Stores In July [Updated]
Zeevex is a virtual item marketplace service that is based in Atlanta, Georgia. Through a partnership with InComm, Zeevex will be distributing Xtreme Online Game Cards. This is a way for gamers to buy virtual currency offline and then use it through Zeevex’s website. Zeevex calls this service a “Digital Locker.”
There is no charge to join Zeevex and the social network plug-ins are included, free of charge. The plug-ins have support for Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Bebo. Parental controls can be added to Zeevex cards too.
One of Zeevex’s competitors is PlaySpan. PlaySpan sells an Ultimate Game Card and has a partnership with Hi5.
Zeevex recently raised a private round of funding. The company management team includes Ron Williams (CEO), Dean Gebert (CMO), and Robert Sanders (CTO).
[via TechCrunch]
Categories Dean Gebert, Robert Sanders, Ron Williams, Zeevex
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Medialets Raises $4 Million Series A For iPhone Advertising
Since the time that the Apple App Store has launched, over 1 billion applications have been downloaded. Some of the applications are paid and some are free. The free applications have found a way to make money thanks to Medialets. Medialets has the ability to embed advertising banners and links on iPhone applications.
The advertising company that started last June in New York and has just announced their Series A funding of $4 million. The investment was led by Foundry Group. Other investors are DFJ Gotham and Bobby Yazdani. Medialets also has the ability to place advertisements on applications built for the Google Android operating system.
Medialets CEO Eric Litman believes that the mobile advertising industry will top at around $300 million but will hit reach as high as $400 million in the next four years.
[via AllThingsD]
Categories Bobby Yazdani, DFJ Gotham, Foundry Group, Medialets
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Intel Calpella-Based Notebook Expected To Launch In Q3 2009
According to the DigiTimes, Intel has outlined their plans for notebooks and netbook products for the second half of 2009. The company still plans to launch the Calpella notebook platform in the third quarter of 2009. The models will be 14″, 15.6″, 17.1″, and 18.4″ with retail prices above $1,200. The Montevina platform cost will go down in the second half of 2009 as well.
Computer manufacturing companies Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Pegatron Technology, Micro-Star International, Wistron, Mitac Technology, Clevo, and Elitegroup Computer Systems are already ramping up to start mass-production of Calpella notebooks for the third quarter. Due to weak demand, Intel is considering cancelling the Atom N280 and GN40 chipset in September.
Below are the platforms, panel sizes, and price expected:
14-18.4″ panel / Calpella traditional notebooks / $1,200+
12-13″ panel / CULV ultra-thin notebook / $699 – $1,100
10″ panel / Atom N270 with 945GSE chipset netbook or Pineview CPU with Tiger Point chipset netbook / $399-$599
8″ panel / Atom N270 with 945GSE chipset white-box netbook / $256 (1750RMB)
Categories Intel
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JVC KY-F4000 8K/4K Camcorders Now In Prototype Phase
At the NAB 2009 show, JVC gave a demo of the KY-F4000 real-time 4K camera. The KY-F4000 has features a single 1.25″ CMOS image sensor with 3840×2160 pixel resolution and has the ability to produces live images with 4 times the resolution of HD. The KY-F4000 also has high resolution imaging with 60 progressive frame live output capability. Other features include HDSDI Dual Link (4:2:2/10 bit 4 ch), DVI Single Link (4:4:4/8 bit x 4ch), and genlock input HDSDI (60i/59.94i). The prototypes of the 4K and 8K versions of the camera are being presented now.
[via Engadget]
Categories JVC, JVC KY-F4000
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In Germany Facebook Has 2 Million Users, StudiVZ Has Over 13 Million
Facebook has recently taken StudiVZ to court claiming that the German social network is simply a knockoff of their own website. StudiVZ is one of the largest social networks in Germany with over 16 million users. Facebook itself has about 2 million active users in Germany. This makes Germany the country with the 18th most highest number of Facebook users.
To make matters even more interesting, StudiVZ was acquired by a larger company already for a price between €50 million-€100 million in 2007. Taking StudiVZ to court is leading people to believe that they are going to go after any other clone next. Xiaonei is the Chinese clone of Facebook.
In order to gain market share in Germany, Facebook started contests such as the German Application Contest and Facebook for Good – Germany. Facebook also hired a few ambassadors in Berlin and Munich.
[via InsideFacebook]
Categories Facebook, StudiVZ
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AMD Marketshare Grows 4.6% In Q1
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is gaining on competitor Intel more and more. In Q1 2009, the overall U.S. microprocessor shipments dropped 10.9% from the quarter before. Overall Intel had a 77.3% market share and AMD had 22.3%. AMD gained 4.6% this quarter.
Even though shipments have slowed down, the rate of decline is expected to lessen.
“The PC processor market continued to reflect significant decline in end demand for most of 1Q09,” stated Shane Rau, a director at research firm IDC. “However, some inventory replenishment by (PC makers) at the end of the quarter helped to slow the decline and bring the quarter in at a level only slightly worse than typical seasonal decline.”
The Atom processor shipped about 33% less in this quarter compared to the previous quarter indicating that there was less of a demand for netbooks this time around.
[via CNET]
Categories Advanced Micro Devices Inc., AMD, Intel
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