Riley Kennysmith | June 30, 2011 | 575 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under PayPal, PayPal Money Market Fund

PayPal’s Money Market Fund was a way for customers to accrue interest on money in their PayPal accounts, but the company announced that the service will be shut down by the end of July of this year. TechCrunch reports that the Money Market Fund held $471 million in PayPal customers’ money, but that the company could no longer justify the service by its now-diminishing returns. PayPal will transfer all of the Fund users’ money to their PayPal accounts once the Fund closes.
Riley Kennysmith | June 30, 2011 | 484 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under China, Google, Penn-Olson, Steven Millward

Chinese authorities have possibly already censored Google’s days-old Google+ social platform. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are blocked from viewing in mainland China. While the censored site is not actually blocked yet, its slow load time in China is likely the result of web throttling. Penn Olson‘s Steven Millward reports that his computer registers a 26.7% info packets loss when he pings Google+ and that it would register a 100% loss if the site were actually blocked.
Riley Kennysmith | June 30, 2011 | 577 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under AT&T, Zynga

Zynga and AT&T have announced a partnership that will benefit AT&T customers as well as benefiting both companies. The deal will have Zynga games featured in AT&T’s Android Market, providing great advertising for the games company. AT&T customers will get free credits in some Zynga games, a definite incentive for some Zynga fanatics to switch to AT&T. According to TechCrunch, AT&T will work with Zynga on developments of their mobile games.
Riley Kennysmith | June 30, 2011 | 566 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Github, Jaisen Mathai, Kickstarter, OpenPhoto, Yahoo!

Jaisen Mathai used to work as an engineer at Yahoo, and has left the company to start his own photo service. The service is called OpenPhoto, and Mathai has been securing funding through Kickstarter because, as TechCrunch notes, photo apps have not been popular with venture funding lately. Mathai believes that users should be in control of their photos and that any uploaded photos are the property of that person and not of the company. As a result, OpenPhoto lets users choose what service they use as a cloud data storage provider.

Riley Kennysmith | June 30, 2011 | 419 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under ANSYS, Apache Design Solutions

ANSYS has agreed to acquire Apache Design Solutions for about $310 million. The deal is cash-only, with provisions for current Apache employees. Both companies are in the simulation software business. TechCrunch reports that Apache’s software focuses on low power integrated circuits, which will work well with ANSYS’s software handling everything from integrated circuits and electronic packages to printed circuit boards.
Riley Kennysmith | June 30, 2011 | 754 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Nielsen

Nielsenwire reports that Nielsen’s recent survey showed that 38% of mobile customers now own smartphones. Of those who purchased a new mobile phone in the past three months, 55% bought smartphones. The data indicates a definite trend toward smartphone purchases. Nielsen’s May survey also shows that most smartphone buyers get Android devices, but that iPhones have shown a greater growth in buyers recently. How long until smartphones are the majority? It could happen very soon, going by these statistics.

Riley Kennysmith | June 30, 2011 | 594 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Citrix, Citrix Startup Accelerator, Core Mobile Networks, Gizmox, Graymatics, Primadesk, Visual WebGui

Today Citrix announced their investments in Graymatics and Gizmox. Graymatics is a cloud platform that does content-based for video and digital media. Gizmox is the developer of Visual WebGui, a platform for mobile and cloud delivery. Citrix’s Citrix Startup Accelerator seed investment initiative has previously invested in Primadesk and Core Mobile Networks. TechCrunch reports that Gizmox and Citrix will be working together on HTML5 app delivery.
Riley Kennysmith | June 30, 2011 | 708 views | Add a Comment
Categorized under Billy Chasen, Facebook, MediaNet, Seth Goldstein, Stickybits, Turntable.fm

Turntable.fm, an invite-only service that lets users DJ for each other and rate the experience, is impressing users and observers alike. Evolver.fm‘s most recent report on the site praises the Turntable.fm communities for “crowdsourced crowd control,” with their organization and polite attitudes. The DJ rooms progress in an orderly fashion that keeps everyone pretty happy. The service is still very new and has bugs to work out, but looks like its popularity will only grow.
