Daily Digest from John & Todd for 05/19/2011
GeekWire Launch Event, June 22: Time to Get Your Geek On
May 19, 2011 10:56 am | GeekWire We know that many of you have been waiting for this, and here it is: we're excited to announce that GeekWire's official launch event will be held the evening of Wednesday, June 22, at the Showbox SoDo, just south of downtown Seattle. Tickets available here – be sure to get yours soon. We're calling the bash... Read More...
BigTip: A deal site for the burbs
May 19, 2011 10:42 am | John Cook We’ve certainly seen a number of daily deal sites trying to emulate the success of Groupon and Living Social. And now, get ready for yet another entrant. BigTip — a new daily deal site founded by former InfoSpace and Yahoo employees — today launched a new offering that’s targeting areas largely forgotten by the big... Read More...
Cozi lays it on the line, goes for world record in rubber duckies
May 19, 2011 10:30 am | John Cook Cozi wants to make sure that families keep their “ducks in a row.” And just how is the Seattle online family scheduling and calendar startup planning to get its message across? But, of course, by creating the “longest line of little yellow rubber ducks” that the world has ever seen. It plans to host the... Read More...
Facebook to use Microsoft's PhotoDNA technology to combat child pornography
May 19, 2011 09:00 am | Todd Bishop Facebook will be the first company outside of Microsoft to roll out the Redmond company’s PhotoDNA technology — a move that the companies are describing as a big step in the fight against child pornography, given the social network’s large user base and its potential to prompt other online services to follow suit. PhotoDNA, developed... Read More...
Benaroya backs smart grid software startup Calico Energy
May 19, 2011 08:23 am | John Cook Calico Energy has developed technologies to help residential and business customers reduce energy costs, a proposition that’s winning the Bellevue company fans with venture capitalists. The company has landed a $2.5 million, led by The Benaroya Company. In April, we reported on Point B Capital investing in the upstart, and Benaroya’s involvement to the tune of... Read More...
Here it is: Verizon's first Windows Phone, HTC Trophy
May 19, 2011 08:20 am | Todd Bishop Microsoft and Verizon Wireless this morning confirmed plans to release the first Windows Phone for Verizon, the HTC Trophy, online on May 26 and in stores June 2. The debut of the phone will add Verizon to AT&T and T-Mobile as carriers for Windows Phone in the U.S., which should help boost Microsoft’s bid to... Read More...
LinkedIn's red hot IPO sparks talk of a bubble: Would you buy at $85 per share?
May 19, 2011 07:43 am | John Cook Netscape’s 1995 IPO was the start of what many considered the beginning of the Internet boom. Did LinkedIn just create the 2011 equivalent? The 8-year-old social networking giant today priced its initial public offering at $45 per share, with shares nearly doubling in the open market to more than $85 in early trading. That gives the... Read More...
PopCap releases Pop Tower on Japanese social networking site
May 19, 2011 07:16 am | John Cook PopCap Games continues to expand in Asia, announcing today that it plans to launch Pop Tower on Japan’s largest social network, GREE. Owned by Taito Corp., GREE boasts more than 25 million users. The announcement comes a day after the Seattle casual gaming company inked a deal to bring Plants vs. Zombies to China’s social... Read More...
Amazon.com sells more Kindle books than paperbacks and hardcovers
May 19, 2011 06:36 am | John Cook Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than printed hardcovers and paperbacks, a milestone that comes four years after the company introduced its electronic reading device. The online retailer has always closely guarded its Kindle numbers, and today’s press release does not indicate how many of the reading devices it has sold to date. But... Read More...
Microsoft CEO Summit: Corporate titans huddle in Redmond, quietly
May 18, 2011 10:44 pm | Todd Bishop The top executives of Wal-Mart, Xerox, Procter & Gamble, Geico, Berkshire Hathaway, Costco, JP Morgan Chase, Ford and more than 100 other big companies from 29 countries have descended on Redmond this week for an annual Microsoft tradition known as the CEO Summit. It’s the 15th time Microsoft has held the event, dating back to... Read More...
Nerd Notes: Angry Birds lands late, DealSpringer pumps up, and Hef sidesteps Jobs
May 18, 2011 09:11 pm | GeekWire Twitter, Facebook and other online distractions are costing our economy dearly. Here, go spend some time reading a story about it. Speaking of distractions, uncensored versions of Playboy will finally arrive on the iPad tomorrow — as a web app, thereby avoiding Apple’s App Store restrictions. The Northwest version of the 140 Characters conference, better known... Read More...
Amazon.com and T-Mobile want your dusty old gadgets
May 18, 2011 04:15 pm | Todd Bishop Suddenly that old phone gathering dust in your drawer is in high demand. Amazon.com today expanded its existing trade-in program to include consumer electronics — offering gift cards to people who send in consumer electronics including tablets, cell phones, MP3 players, cameras, GPS devices, and other items. The company previously limited trade-ins to DVDs, video games... Read More...
San Francisco picks Microsoft for big cloud email contract
May 18, 2011 02:16 pm | Todd Bishop San Francisco has picked Microsoft’s Exchange Online email service for more than 23,000 employees across the city and county, the company announced today. The contract is worth $1.2 million per year to Microsoft, officials told reporters on a conference call today. It’s a trophy for Microsoft to hoist in the backyard of many of its... Read More...
Yahoo buys Jim Heckman's online ad startup 5to1.com
May 18, 2011 02:08 pm | John Cook 5to1.com, an online advertising startup led by Seattle entrepreneur and former Fox Interactive media exec Jim Heckman, has been acquired by Yahoo in a deal of undisclosed size. "We’re thrilled for our media partners that Yahoo! is backing our platform and the alliance," said Heckman in a press release. "The 5to1 team is looking forward... Read More...
Excerpt: BBC host grills Bill Gates on Microsoft's prospects
May 18, 2011 01:10 pm | Todd Bishop Well, on a program called “Hard Talk,” it only makes sense that host Stephen Sackur didn’t accept Bill Gates’ standard response — that there are always areas where Microsoft is doing well, and areas where the company can improve. And the Microsoft chairman’s reply at least provided some interesting insights into his mindset about the... Read More...
PopCap's 4th & Battery studio brings back Candy Train (this time for the iPhone)
May 18, 2011 01:08 pm | John Cook PopCap’s new game studio, 4th & Battery, is gearing up for the release of its second game. And it’s an oldie, but a goodie. PopCap is re-releasing Candy Train, a game that the company first introduced for a short spell several years ago. Now, the game is returning tomorrow as a free iOS game for the... Read More...
Lovelletters: Failed startup shattered my life and all I got was this crappy t-shirt
May 18, 2011 12:01 pm | Rebecca Lovell Dear Geeks – This week’s top submission was juicy enough that names were changed to protect the not-so-innocent…otherwise, reprinted verbatim here. - Rebecca Dear Rebecca, I have a leather jacket and a hat with the [Startup X] logo, along with thousands of worthless stock options, from the now defunct startup that closed a few years back after burning through... Read More...
AT&T allowing Amazon Appstore on new (and some old) Android devices
May 18, 2011 11:53 am | Todd Bishop One of the challenges for Amazon.com when it launched its Android Appstore in March was the inability for AT&T customers to access the marketplace on their devices, thanks to restrictions the carrier has traditionally placed on the installation third party apps not coming through the official Android Market. The companies promised at the time that the... Read More...
Chris Pirillo's CDN in a Box looks to make Web sites hum at 'Google-like speeds'
May 18, 2011 11:13 am | John Cook Seattle super geek Chris Pirillo has a loyal following who love his offbeat musings on technology. But sometimes Pirillo’s network of sites, including LockerGnome.com, get overloaded with traffic. Faced with that challenge, Pirillo and his team have developed a new service called CDN in a Box that’s designed to handle huge traffic spikes and accelerate... Read More...
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