Still undecided what to get someone on your holiday gift list? From backup phone batteries, to warm gloves you can wear while tapping on your iPhone, we’ve collected some essential items and accessories all under $100 that any iPhone or iPad users could use. Read more »
A Fox news story about the Newtown tragedy came with an ad for a bloody t-shirt while Facebook showed an ad for a shooting game. In the past, editors could have screened these ads — this is less possible online where fewer humans are involved in the ad-buying process. Read more at paidContent »
Getting Netflix streams to play on all of your devices requires a whole lot of encoding: The company is preparing 120 different versions of each movie to deal with different screen sizes and bandwidth requirements, according to a recently published behind-the-scenes video. Read more »
Google launched a free music match service for MP3 files in Europe in October and now brings the same service to the U.S. Apple and Amazon also provide the same, but charge for the convenience of not having to upload a music library. Read more »
When releasing the software update, Apple didn’t specify the nature of the bug. But a look at the company’s online support forums show a variety of complaints of problems related to accessing some local networks. Read more »
For the Makers is part of a new trend of DIY boxes that allow would-be makers to try their hand at creating crafts and accessories. The New York-based company launched out of private beta in December and has deals with Anthropologie and Gilt City. Read more »
Everyone’s talking about the greatness of big data, but we’re nowhere near the promised land of what’s possible when we turn data loose on our lives. Here are three things to watch that could affect how companies and everday people consume all that info. Read more »
How do you connect people who have no Internet? How do you build a wireless network outside of the official wireless ISPs? These are questions the Open Technology Institute wants to answer in Detroit with Commotion, an open source, wireless mesh networking technology trial. Read more »
Coworking spaces have become popular among startups, and they’re popping up all over the city. Our intrepid reporter spent much of the past month camping out at various coworking spaces in New York to see what the fuss is all about. Read more »
For 6Wunderkinder, taking task management app Wunderlist native meant killing off the company’s second product, project management app Wunderkit. So it’s no surprise to see sharing get a big boost in the new version of 6Wunderkinder’s flagship. Read more »
According to one report, Apple is considering a partnership with Foursquare that would involve using the location-based service’s data inside Apple’s maps. That would be a smart move for Apple at a time when its maps have come under heavy fire for a lack of features. Read more »
Cisco is the latest vendor to get into the policy management game. It’s planned acquisition of BroadHop will give it the foundation for new sets of service tiers that prioritize certain types of traffic over others. Read more »
Amazon’s audiobook company, Brilliance, is expanding with the launch of Grand Harbor Press, a self-help and inspirational publishing division that will release books in print, digital and audio formats. Its first title is by Will Bowen, who previously published two books with Random House’s Doubleday. Read more at paidContent »
Samsung’s Galaxy Grand looks like a large Galaxy S III, but the 5-inch display uses a low 800 x 480 resolution. Still, the Grand may be a smart strategy thanks to other decent specs and dual-SIM support which should generate interest in China, India and Africa. Read more »
Catbird, a company providing security for virtualized environments has taken on a small funding round from Medina Capital Partners, the venture firm set up by Manny Medina, the former CEO of Terremark. The new fund seeks to invest growth capital in enterprise IT deals. Read more »
As newspaper book sections shrink or disappear, the Guardian is teaming up with the Amazon-owned Audible.co.uk to sponsor much of its books content in print and online. The companies are also launching “The Guardian Audio Edition,” a free weekly selection of articles read aloud. Read more at paidContent »
The new ability of AWS users to move EBS storage volumes between Amazon’s regions could drastically improve disaster recovery scenarios. Amazon announced this EBS Snapshot Copy feature early on Tuesday. Read more »
Sacrebleu! IPTV adoption in France is greater than anywhere in the world — and becoming more so. But that doesn’t mean the French consume the most internet video. Here is why its market is failing to take advantage. Read more at paidContent »
Samsung said in a statement that the move was “in the interest of protecting consumer choice.” But it also could have been related to the European Union’s simultaneous investigation into whether Samsung had violated any laws in fairly licensing standard-essential patents. Read more »
As companies search for an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform that fits
their unique business needs, three main elements must be considered: flexibility,
transparency and customization. While many cloud providers deliver one of these
elements, CloudSigma’s solution offers all of the above. Learn more here. Read more »
VCs at firms like Sequoia Capital or Andreessen Horowitz might scoff at the call for attention to a positive fund value, but in the cleantech ecosystem a significant positive growth in value is pretty rare. Read more »
Fitness app maker Noom is backed by Kleiner’s iFund and yet it still hasn’t put out an iPhone app. The company has instead focused on Android, earning the top grossing fitness app on Google Play. Now the company is raising $2.6M as it targets iOS. Read more »
Developers say Firebase makes it really easy for them to quickly write and debug web applications without having to mess with server infrastructure. But they want better security for those apps. On Tuesday, Firebase will roll out a new security API. Read more »
Looking for a job in digital media? Each week we highlight some of the most interesting positions posted to paidContent’s jobs board. Check out the latest gigs at media companies across the country. Read more at paidContent »
Despite a lot of hand wringing this year, various cleantech sectors are on the difficult path to market maturation, and not necessarily in a “crisis.” Read more »
The way the industry will use cloud-computing technology in 2013 will require following the existing adoption patterns and trends into the New Year. Those trends include the rise of standards, big data’s role in the cloud, industry-specific clouds, security, and more. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Swipely, a startup launched by former Tellme co-founder Angus Davis, has been through a couple of business models but it is now finding a sweet spot with its combination of card processing, data analytics and marketing and loyalty. Read more »
Documents filed with the SEC on Friday indicate that Sequoia Capital has raised $700 million for its global growth fund, an existing but not yet reported fund for international investments. The firm has been expanding internationally recently as the trend among VCs is to look overseas. Read more »
Companies spent roughly $1.6 billion buying networking startups in 2012 with one deal being responsible for the lion’s share of that total. Yet, even if VMware hadn’t purchased Nicira for $1.26 billion, networking deals and software-defined networking deals in particular, were red hot in 2012. Read more »
Clearwire and Sprint have a long history. Together they dreamed of changing the wireless industry, but their grand plan was fraught with missteps that wound up leaving both their 4G strategies in limbo. Sprint now seems ready to bring Clearwire home. Read more »
Current Windows Phone 8 and upcoming BlackBerry 10 handsets look great, but will people switch? Not likely, and even first-time smartphone owners may balk. It’s a perfect example of old phrase, “timing is everything” as most smartphone innovation has already taken place. Read more »
The web series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn got nominated for 8 Streamy Awards today. It’s a big-budget-looking production that could provide insight into what the future of multi-platform video entertainment looks like. In this podcast we talk with the show’s executive producers. Read more »
University Ventures, a $100 million education technology fund, on Monday announced the launch of UV Labs, a company that will partner with schools to build new online learning products. Read more »
In an attempt to help get around what they call a financial blockade of WikiLeaks and to help fund-raise for other public-interest groups, some high-profile journalists and freedom-of-information activists have set up the Freedom of the Press Foundation, an umbrella group that launched on Monday. Read more »
Facebook is leaping into the local discovery and search market with an upgrade to its mobile Nearby feature, which will allow users to find relevant places based on social signals and other data. Nearby will pit Facebook against Yelp, Foursquare and Google. Read more »
Amidst rampant solar manufacturing bankruptcies, thin film solar startup Stion has raised a $25 million equity round, of a planned $55 million round. At the same time the company is cutting costs and laid off a small amount of workers. Read more »
It looks like AT&T’s Galaxy Note 2 will be the last to get the unique multi-window feature in the U.S. Sprint and Verizon devices already have it and T-Mobile announced that its version will see it become available starting this week, if all goes to plan. Read more »
YouTube just released a new video recording app for iPhones that comes with a bunch of neat features designed to help you make better videos, and share them on social networks. But the boldest thing about the app may just be its name. Read more »
Aviary is adding a new CEO, the company announced Monday, bringing on former CEO of OneRiot just after the company released several high-profile projects with its partners at Twitter and Yahoo’s Flickr. Aviary provides a photo-editing SDK used by a variety of popular developers. Read more »
It was clear last week it was going to be popular as it quickly shot to the top of the App Store’s download charts. But the release of the exact number helps illuminate the demand for Google’s app after Apple dropped it from iOS 6. Read more »
