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Watch Lakers vs Jazz Right Game 2 on your PC!
Watch the Lakers vs Jazz Game 2 live from LA! We’ve got fabulous news for you! Now, you won’t have to spend more than $100 for your monthly cable bill. With only your personal computer and an internet connection, you get to be updated with the latest news and watch all your favorite sports right [...]
Get a free Wii fit now!
Get a free Wii Fit now! Want to be fit and healthy by using this Wii Fit games? Now, you can have it all for free! This video game created by Nintendo is an exercise game that consists of different exercise activities using the peripheral of the Wii Balance Board. Currently second place when it [...]
Teenager found stabbed to death
A teenager has been stabbed to death in north London. The emergency services were called to reports of three people being assaulted in Amhurst Park, near Stamford Hill, at 0200 GMT. One person, thought to be in his late teens, was found suffering stab wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. The two other people were taken to hospital with stab wounds. They were said to be in a serious but stable condition. No arrests have been made. Roads in the area remain closed. The two people being treated in hospital are thought to be in their late teens or early 20s.
Data Storage Startup Pivot3 Lands $25 Million
Data storage company Pivot3 has raised $25 million in Series D funding led by Focus Ventures with existing investors InterWest Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mesirow Financial Capital Partners IX , and Silver Creek Ventures participating. This brings the startup’s total funding to over $75 million. Pivot3’s storage solutions offer integrated server virtualization for data to enterprise customers. Its RAID-based solutions are generally used to store video surveillance data. The company has over 140 customers including Port of Seattle, the Mall of America, and the City of Trenton. The investment will be used to expand sales operations internationally and for product development. CrunchBase Information Pivot3 Information provided by CrunchBase
If You Build It, He Will Come: Movieclips Now Available Internationally, Releases API
Online movie clips site Movieclips has opened up its service to users all over the world and released an API. The site, which launched in beta last December, is a movie clip destination that offers licensed, high quality movie scenes on the web. Movieclips was previously only available to U.S. users but is now available to users all over the world, thanks to approval from the studios who own the content. The site features more than 12,000 two-minute clips from the libraries of 20th Century Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures. The company has also developed proprietary technology that assigns up to 1,000 points of data to every scene, making it super easy to find scenes by actor, film title, dialogue snippet, director, genre, etc. The site allows you to embed clips, share your comments below the video and share the whole thing with your buddies on Facebook, Twitter, and Digg. The API, which is free, isn’t fully open as developers who use the API must be approved by Moveclips. The company is also working on launching a new, specially developed player for move clips on the site. We’re big fans of the site; what’s not to love about free, licensed clips that you can share with anyone? Movieclip faces competition from TC50 2009 finalist AnyClip. CrunchBase Information MOVIECLIPS Information provided by CrunchBase
Social Mapping Startup Platial Finds Its Way To The Deadpool
As Google Maps extends its dominance in the social mapping world, mapping startups are having trouble competing. Platial, a Kleiner Perkins-backed social mapping startup, is heading to the deadpool. Platial, “the people’s atlas,” allowed users to make and share their own maps. Using Google Maps API, Platial let anyone put locations markers over any point on the map they’ve visited and then annotate it with pictures and comments. You could easily embed and share your maps on other sites. In 2007, Platial acquired a competitor in the social mapping space, Frappr. In the blog post announcing Platial’s demise, it wasn’t clear what the exact reason was for the site to close its doors but the startup said it would be updating its blog with details about the shutdown in the near future. Platial received backing from many notable investors and venture funds. They took $800,000 in angel funding in October 2005 from Kleiner Perkins; Byers, Omidyar Network, Ram Shriram, Georges Harik, Jack Dangermon, and Ron Conway. In February 2007, they raised an additional $2.6 million from Keynote Ventures, with participation from most of the previous investors. We’ve added the startup the deadpool. CrunchBase Information Platial Information provided by CrunchBase
Dropcam Gets an iPhone App
I like a secure household. I like to back up my seismics with a perimeter of screamers and I like to keep a webcam trained on my front door. One problem, however, has been viewing my perimeter remotely with my iPhone. It is a problem no more. Dropcam , makers of $199 wireless webcams, have released an updated iPhone app that let’s you add cameras to your system with a minimum of fuss and muss. Each camera pops up on the app as its started and you can view images over Wi-Fi and 3G anywhere in the world.
Analyst: iPad Could Be Delayed Until April
It begins: Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek is harshing on all our buzzes by announcing that according to an unidentified source at Hon Hai Precision, a CE manufacturer, the iPad could be delated until April. The source said that there were only 300K units available for a March launch, which may put a damper on what we’re calling iPad Awareness Month. He expects Apple to sell about 1.2 million units in 2010 and 3.5 million in 2011.
Announcing: TechCrunch Disrupt, May 24-26 in New York
New York, the city that never sleeps, may finally meet its match. TechCrunch is coming, and we’re bringing three days of non-stop conference and startup-competition energy, May 24-26. We call it TechCrunch Disrupt because we want to debate what’s really changing in media and technology right now, what’s causing disruption and what we need to do about it to survive and thrive in real time. Each morning , we’ll explore media and technology disruption themes through hosted panel discussions, keynotes, roundtable conversations and select product demonstrations. We’ll bring the experts, thought leaders, top entrepreneurs and business leaders and others together to talk about what’s next. And why. With lots of audience participation. Each afternoon, we take our morning debate into the field. New startups and products will be unveiled and will compete for recognition and a top prize in the Startup Battlefield. This is a tournament-style launch platform where startups demo their products and impress the audience and panel of experts over multiple rounds of competition. Everyone gets stage time to show their stuff, and plenty of direct feedback. But then they’ll jump into head to head competition with the other startups. Experts and seasoned veterans will be brought in to mentor and judge startups on product, business models, team, design and usability and more. And the final round will put startups in the hot seat where some of the most successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business executives will grill them in front of the audience and see how they perform. It’ll be a little bit like pitching a top VC, except it will be done live on stage in front of thousands. Audience voting as well as expert feedback will factor into final competition scores. One startup will emerge the overall winner and take home a $50,000 cash prize. But all of the startups get an incredible launch event for their product, and priceless feedback from people who can really help. And, best of all, it’s free for startups to launch at TechCrunch Disrupt. Save those dollars for your product. Applications open today (March 1) and will be reviewed on a rolling basis through midnight pst, Friday, March 26. There are no fees to apply or compete in the Startup Battlefield, and startups from around the world are welcome to submit for consideration. In fact, we go out of our way to take help non-U.S. startups get the support they need during the application process to maximize their chances. Where can you fit a battlefield in New York City, you ask? We found 100,000 square feet of space in the Soho-West Village neighborhood. We promise you haven’t been to a conference venue like this before. It’s actually an ex-Merrill Lynch office that’s available on short-term lease. It’s a perfect metaphor for disruption. And it gives us almost unlimited room for creativity, exhibits , lounges and demos. In typical TechCrunch style, save room for the after parties each night too. Tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt are on sale now. Best rates are available through March 31. Better to disrupt than be disrupted. Hope to see you there. More details will be coming on the Disrupt Blog .
In Wake Of Fabulis Debacle, Citibank Makes Changes To Internet Business Policy
Last week, Citibank found itself in the eye of an Internet storm after it was revealed that the bank had blocked the business account of Web startup fabulis over (non-existing) ‘objectionable content’ on the company’s blog . The topic was all the more sensitive because fabulis operates a social network / lifestyle website targeting gay men. A Citi representative was quick to apologize to fabulis founder Jason Goldberg (see updates to our previous story), but has now taken its official response a step further by reviewing and effectively making changes to its policies around Internet business account customers. Here’s the note, straight from Citibank’s online discussion forum (emphasis ours): Citibank Message About Internet Business Accounts At Citibank, we have learned a great deal from recent customer issues related to Internet business accounts. Mistakes were made in some instances, in which we apologized and corrected the problem. These issues made it clear to us that the language in our branch procedures was not specific enough and left too much room for interpretation from one account to the next. We recognized that we needed clearer and less subjective guidelines with regard to opening Internet business accounts. And there were clearly gaps in training and communications around these specific branch procedures. Based on all these learnings, we’ve taken action and this week we updated and clarified our procedures for opening all Internet business accounts. Banks are required by law to conduct due diligence and understand the nature of business accounts. For Internet business accounts, we have made it clearer to our bankers what the due diligence process entails. For example, we will continue to reserve the right to decline or suspend an account if we find illegal or discriminatory content, or if the site involves gambling or pornography. Beyond that specific due diligence, however, we do not monitor or evaluate our customers’ web content. We are providing additional training in this area to ensure the procedures are uniformly and correctly followed. Also, our bankers are now required to have additional consultation with senior level banking executives when questions arise about these accounts before making any final decisions . This will help to avoid misunderstanding and subjective decisions, and promote greater consistency throughout the process. And we remain committed to working with our customers to try to resolve any issues. As a global organization, we also recognize the power and promise of diversity. In that spirit, we reiterate Citi’s commitment to serving customers, hiring talent and supporting a broad array of organizations that promote diversity. To learn more about our diversity efforts, please visit: http://www.citigroup.com/citi/citizen/diversity/index.htm. These recent customer issues have been a useful learning experience for us. We again apologize for any misunderstandings that may have occurred. We are committed to improving every day and we’re working to better serve our customers. I pinged Goldberg about the changes, which have also been communicated to him in an individual e-mail. He says he’s amazed that while the Obama administration can’t seem to get banks to change their ways, “we the people of social media” can. He adds: How anyone at Citibank could have reviewed fabulis and classified it as “porn” is beyond us, and it speaks to how backwards and antiquated its policies were. Amen to that. Still, Citibank is being quite transparent about the whole ordeal and seems to be moving to make amends quickly. What do you think about the whole situation? CrunchBase Information Fabulis Jason Goldberg Information provided by CrunchBase
