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OpenWays makes your smartphone a hotel room key, provides a different kind of ‘unlock’

Published: May 30th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment

For years now, hotel chains have been toying with alternative ways to letting patrons check-in, access their room and run up their bill with all-too-convenient in-room services. Marriott began testing smartphone check-ins way back in 2006, and select boutique locations (like The Plaza Hotel in New York and Boston’s Nine Zero) have relied on RFID, iris scanners, biometric identifiers and all sorts of whiz-bang entry methods in order to make getting past a lock that much easier (or harder, depending on perspective). This month, InterContinental Hotels Group announced that they would soon be trialing OpenWays at Chicago’s Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center, enabling iPhone owners to fire up an app and watch their room door open in a magical sort of way. Other smartphone platforms will also be supported, and as we’ve seen with other implementations, users of the technology will also be able to turn to their phone to order additional services, extend their stay or fess up to that window they broke. There’s no word on when this stuff will depart the testing phase and go mainstream, but we’re guessing it’ll be sooner rather than later. Video after the break, if you’re interested.

Continue reading OpenWays makes your smartphone a hotel room key, provides a different kind of ‘unlock’

OpenWays makes your smartphone a hotel room key, provides a different kind of ‘unlock’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 May 2010 01:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Switched  |  sourceHospitality, USA Today  | Email this | Comments

Guy Who Copied Digg Slams Digg For Copying Twitter

Published: May 30th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment

One of the founders of Reddit, a Digg-clone, openly criticized Digg founder Kevin Rose yesterday for his plans to implement “me-too” features into the new version of the service. We consider this to be absurd and rather impolite.

Yesterday we discovered a video showing some of the features of the upcoming relaunch of Digg. In a nutshell, Digg has been trying to find a way to leverage social sharing to make the site more relevant, and users will soon see links to interesting things based on the what people and entities they choose to follow are voting on.

That goal isn’t anything new, founder Kevin Rose has been talking openly about it for more than a year now.

Will it help save Digg, which has been stuck in a no-growth cycle for years now as services like Twitter and Facebook have surged? I have no idea. I do know that Digg will now become much more personally relevant to me, and TechCrunch will certainly be auto-publishing to Digg and adding a Digg button to posts.

I love nothing more than shouting my opinion on things, and I’ve been particularly harsh on Rose and Digg over the last several months. But opinions are one thing. Rewriting history is another.

Hypocrisy Alert

Reddit, a site for discovering and sharing new things, was launched in mid-2005, more than six months after Digg. There were very few differences between Reddit and Digg then, and they haven’t diverged all that much since then, either. Both sites allow users to vote on submitted stories/links, and the most popular stories are on the home page. Reddit ripped off the core Digg idea when it launched. Which is totally fine in my opinion, since the Internet has evolved in this way from the beginning. You take someone else’s ideas and you try to improve on them.

But Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says Digg needs new ideas. From his post:

…this new version of digg reeks of VC meddling. It’s cobbling together features from more popular sites and departing from the core of digg, which was to “give the power back to the people.”

Those are your words from that aforementioned 2004 video segment.

Now what matters is how many followers & influence a user has and how many followers & influence they’ve got.

Where have we heard this before: Twitter? Facebook? GoogleBuzz?

Kevin, you absolutely deserve all the credit for starting the movement — fascinating things happen when online communities can efficiently share content. Whales get silly names and we can expose the tragedies our fellow man endures faster than ever before.

It’s a damned shame to see digg just re-implementing features from other websites.

Is it reasonable criticism? Absolutely (although I disagree with it). And when it’s being said by someone who cloned the site that he is now complaining is copying features from others, it becomes absurd.

But hold on just one minute – Ohanian says he never even knew about Digg when he decided to build Reddit half a year after Digg launched:

Funded by Y Combinator, Steve Huffman and I started work on reddit in June 2005, which we launched a month later. A month after that, we learned about digg and realized this was going to be an interesting new space — we had some catching up to do.

Is that possible? Did they really invent the Digg idea completely independently from Digg six months after Digg launched? And no one at Y Combinator pointed out that there were similarities?

Paul Carr put this best when we were discussing this post internally on Yammer: “So at best they did zero research before they launched Reddit into a space that kinda relies on the founders knowing where to find cool new stuff online.”

At worst of course he’s simply lying.

Everyone knows that Digg needs to do something to find relevance again. This new version looks as good to me as anything else I’ve heard suggested, and it certainly doesn’t smell like something the venture capitalists forced down their throat. Kevin returned to a full time role at Digg earlier this year and clearly wants to prove that he can bring this company back to life. He’s excited about Digg, clearly. He may succeed. He may fail. But at least he’s in the arena and fighting valiantly.

ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 29 May 2010

Published: May 30th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment

Our first East Coast event – the ReadWriteWeb Real-Time Web Summit – just around the corning. It’s happening on June 11 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City, and will be our second Summit on the Real-Time Web. If you’re a long-time reader, you know that’s a topic that we’ve written extensively about. We hope you can join us.

How do you like your events guide? You can import individual events into Google Calendar using the link beside each entry, or download the entire thing as an iCal (and Google Calendar-importable) file, or even view it as a world map. Know of something cool taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

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4 – 6 June 2010: Chicago, IL

Blogs with Balls 3

bwb3_200px.pngThe bright future of sports media gathers for Blogs with Balls 3 in Chicago at the legendary Wrigley Field. This third installment of the conference focuses on sports and local media, the ever-changing face of traditional media, as well as all the ways that mobile and emerging technologies are changing the world of the sports fan (and the companies trying to reach him or her) today. Feature speakers from established players like ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo! Sports & The Sporting News and emerging blogging/podcasting personalities and sports new media entrepreneurs, not to mention former professional athletes who are bolstering their brand through digital.

Register before May 15 and save more than $50 off the full ticket price at blogswithballs3.eventbrite.com. Use discount code RWWxBWB


5 – 7 June 2010: Marseilles, France

Lift France ‘10

LiftFrance10-banner_carre.jpgLift France gathers pioneers from all over the world to explore how the technologies and concepts of the Web are changing the real world. Through a combination of workshops, inspiring talks, and innovative demos, Lift offers a chance to anticipate the major shifts ahead, and meet the people who drive them.

Together we will explore 4 major topics:

  • “Web Squared”, Making Sense of the World through Shared Data
  • “Fab Labs”, Reinventing Manufacturing
  • People Hacks”, Distributing Control and Knowledge
  • “Privacy Revisited”, Protect and Project
  • Speakers include Sam Pitroda, advisor to India’s PM on innovation; Alma Whitten, Google’s privacy lead; Haakon Karlsen, Fab Labs Foundation; Michael Cross, FreeOurData.org; Amit Zoran, MIT Smart Cities Lab; Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, French minister for the Digital Economy; Geoff Mulgan, the Young Foundation.


    11 June 2010: New York City

    You’re invited to join ReadWriteWeb for our third event and our first on the East Coast: the ReadWriteWeb Real-Time Web Summit, on June 11 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. This is our second Summit on the Real-Time Web, following on from our successful debut event in Mountain View last October. It will follow the same unconference format, which we have gotten a lot of great feedback on.

    The Real-Time Web is a set of technologies that impacts almost every service, activity and application on the Web. We were one of the first news outlets to analyze the Real-Time Web and we’ve since written extensively about it. Come to the summit to understand how it impacts you, your business and your next development.

    The ReadWriteWeb team is excited about our first New York event and we look forward to seeing you there!


    12 – 13 June 2010: Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

    2010 H+ Summit

    H+ logo 250x156.jpgThe focus of 2010’s H+ Summit is on the “Rise of the Citizen Scientist” and will feature 60 renowned speakers who are leaders and champions of global movements involving transformative science and technology. These thought-leaders will provide an early look at the trends and technologies that attendees will be writing, speaking and communicating about for the next twenty years.

    Three of the Summit’s featured speakers include Ray Kurzweil, noted futurist, Stephen Wolfram, creator of Wolfram|Alpha, and Andrew Hessel, an outspoken advocate and champion of DNA technology. The visionary thinking of Kurzweil, Wolfram and Hessel is representative of the level of trend-setting talks that will be featured in the 2010 H+ Summit.


    15 – 16 June 2010: New York City

    Corporate Social Media Summit

    events_usefull_social_media.jpgThe Corporate Social Media Summit is a two day conference focused exclusively on how big businesses can take advantage of social media to enhance their marketing/comms strategy. Featuring:

    • Practical and relevant insights from peers who have already used social media successfully
    • 20-plus corporate speakers (including PepsiCo, Whole Foods, Dell, McDonald’s, General Motors, Citi, Johnson & Johnson),
    • Best practice, benchmarks and practical next steps you can use to take advantage of social media in your business
    • A tightly-focused agenda with 14 in-depth, practical workshops giving you knowledge on only the most critical business issues surrounding corporate use of social media

    Save $400 if you quote RWW400 when booking. Book here.


    21 – 25 June 2010: San Francisco, California

    SemTech 2010

    SemanticLogo2010_with dates.jpgSemTech 2010 is the world’s largest, most authoritative conference on semantic technology. The programs covers semantics in enterprise computing, consumer applications, search, Linked Data and social networking. SemTech is the place where the entire community gathers to do business – entrepreneurs and investors, researchers and product developers, marketers and customers.

    This year we have in-depth focus on industry applications in Healthcare, Life Sciences, Open Government, Publishing, Finance and Advertising. Case studies will be provided by early adopters including Best Buy, Biogen, Blue Cross, Boeing, Cleveland Clinic, DoD, Group M, Merck, Nokia, Pearson, Pfizer, Salesforce.com, US Air Force, University of Texas and the World Bank. The conference hashtag is #SemTech.


    22 – 24 June 2010: Santa Clara, California

    Velocity

    events_velocity.jpgNow in its third year, Velocity – the Web Performance and Operations Conference from O’Reilly Media – is dedicated to helping people build a better Internet that is Fast by Default. Join hundreds of web developers and experts under one roof from June 22-24, 2010 in Santa Clara, CA Velocity packs a wealth of big ideas, know-how, and connections into three concentrated days. You’ll be able to apply what you’ve learned immediately for high impact results and you’ll come away prepared for what’s ahead. O’Reilly Velocity 2010 is the premier conference dedicated to building industrial strength sites, at internet speed. <a href="Velocity“>Register Now and save 25% with discount code “vel10rww”.


    29 – 30 June 2010: London

    Cloud Computing World Forum

    events_cloud_computing_forum.jpgThe 2nd annual Cloud Computing World Forum is the perfect event to learn and discuss the development, integration, adoption and future of cloud computing and SaaS. Building on the success of the 2009 show, this two day conference and free-to-attend exhibition will provide a focused platform for the global cloud and SaaS industry. Show highlights include:

    • Co-located with CloudCamp London
    • Co-located with Green IT conference
    • Free-to-attend exhibition with seminar and scenario theatre
    • Free-to-attend evening awards presentation
    • Hear from leading case studies on how they have integrated cloud computing and SaaS into their working practices
    • Learn from the key players offering cloud and SaaS services
    • Evening networking party for all attendees

    7 July 2010: Melbourne, Australia

    Digital Sport Summit

    events_sportssummit.pngDigital Sport Summit is Australia’s premier sport and digital media event. Hear from social media pioneers who are changing the face of Australian sport. Learn how social media and mobile technology is taking fan engagement to a whole new level.

    Speakers on the day will cover a variety of topics including:

    • iPhone application development for sport
    • Convincing management of the case for social media
    • How to monetize social media
    • Fantasy sports
    • Social media from an athlete’s perspective

    With speakers representing Essendon Football Club, Cricket Victoria, Herald Sun, Football Federation Australia and more. Digital Sport Summit will take place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.


    22 – 23 September 2010: Singapore

    Social Media World Forum Asia

    illus-banner-240.jpgSocial Media World Forum Asia is back for 2010. The event will be taking place at the larger venue – The Suntec Conference Centre – before the F1 Singapore night race. Two days of interactive and engaging conference featuring leading key figure keynotes, brand case studies, topical Q&A and debates, exhibition hall, workshops and networking. Speakers include:

  • Blake Chandlee, VP & Commercial Director, EMEA, Facebook
  • Nicki Kenyon, Vice President, Digital Marketing APMEA, MasterCard
  • Reynold D’Silva, Global Brand Marketing Manager, Unilever
  • Pooja Arora, Brand Manager, P&G
  • Thomas Crampton, Asia-Pacific Director, 360 Digital Influence, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
  • Lito S. German, Marketing Director, BMW Group Asia
  • Ranjeet-Shandu Singh, Digital Project Manager, Ogilvy One Singapore
  • Derek Yeo, Head of Marketing, Tiger Airways

  • 5 October 2010: New York City

    FinovateFall

    events_finfall_1010.jpgFinovateFall will return to Manhattan on Tuesday, October 5 to showcase dozens of the biggest and most innovative new ideas in financial and banking technology from established leaders and hot young companies. The Fall event is the original and largest Finovate and features a single day packed with our special blend of short, fast-paced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) and intimate networking time with top executives from the innovative demoing companies.

    FinovateFall is a unique chance to see the future of finance and banking before your competition and find the edge you need in today’s market. Early bird registration rates are available.


    29 – 30 March 2011: London

    Social Media World Forum Europe

    london-media-200.jpgSocial Media World Forum Europe: Two days of interactive & engaging conference featuring leading key figure keynotes, brand case studies, topical Q&A and debates, exhibition hall, workshops and networking.

    Social Media World Forum Europe is continuing to evolve and deliver an event which is second to none, ensuring our audience receive the maximum potential from attending our shows. New for 2011 we have introduced interactive panel discussions, live streamed debate sessions, collaborative learning, break-out group discussions, open Q&A portions in every session, open workshops, with group discussions and interactive zones within the exhibition hall. We have introduced the Online Marketing Toolbox Workshops, educating in all elements of the online marketing mix, such as SEO, Paid Search, Affiliate, Mobile & Apps. The perfect toolbox to complete your online marketing strategy.


    Download this entire events calendar in iCal format.

    Discuss


    Toshiba AirSwing UI puts you on the screen with your data

    Published: May 28th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment
    We’ve seen a Minority Report-esque interface or two hundred by this point, but Toshiba’s AirSwing really caught our attention. Using little more than a webcam and some software, this bad boy places a semi-transparent image of the operator on the display — all the easier to maneuver through the menus. And according to Toshiba, that software only utilizes about three percent of a 400MHz ARM 11 CPU — meaning that you have plenty of processor left for running your pre-crime diagnostics. There is no telling when something like this might become commercially available, but the company plans to bundle it in commercial displays for malls and the like. Video after the break.

    Continue reading Toshiba AirSwing UI puts you on the screen with your data

    Toshiba AirSwing UI puts you on the screen with your data originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 02:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink   |  sourceDiginfo  | Email this | Comments

    What the Hell Is Going on in Indonesia?

    Published: May 28th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment

    From Silicon Valley to New York, from India to South Africa one question keeps popping up in the mind of Web and mobile Web entrepreneurs: What the hell is going on in Indonesia?

    Having matured from its early 2000s Internet obsession with Friendster, it seems Indonesia has become something of a Web force, embracing everything from Facebook to Foursquare catching people off guard with some uncommon swarms. We wrote about an obscure Indonesian awards show taking over Twitter back in March, and on May 6, Indonesians flocking to see Iron Man 2 won their first Super Swarm badge on FourSquare—something US Web addicts usually only earn at large events like SXSW.

    I’d like to say I hunted down some impressive Internet entrepreneurs during my current trip to Indonesia to ask them exactly what was going on here, but really they found me. (Just another sign of their Web savvy.) I had dinner with some of them in Jakarta last week, and they’re photographed above. They include (from left to right) Leontinus Alpha Edison of Tokopedia, an ecommerce platform; Eduardus Christmas of still-in-progress Evolitera; Rama Mamuaya, creator of the local blog DailySocial; Selina Limman of Urbanesia.com, a local review site; Satya Witoelar of Koprol.com, a location-based social network just acquired by Yahoo and Andrew Darwis of Kaskus, a forum and classifieds portal.

    I grilled them on some basic questions to bring you a Web-in-Indonesia primer. But before we get to those, here’s what impressed me the most about this small-but-tightly-knit community: It’s incredibly collegial. Plenty of research has shown that the biggest reason Silicon Valley beat Boston as a venture capital and startup hot spot was because culturally it was open, trading employees, funding, mentorship and ideas among competitors. It’s not uncommon to see Web competitors in the Valley having dinner together and generally discussing business challenges, before they go back to the office for some late night coding to bury one another in the market.

    This is something many emerging markets struggle with as they put up walls, try to enforce NDAs and are generally cagey about their ideas. But the Indonesian crew is so small that they’ve found each other—mostly via Twitter—and banded together, openly discussing challenges posed by uncertain waters of raising money and offers to get acquired.

    Since Indonesia has had little hype, the community seems to have grown organically—like the early days of the Valley and very unlike Web communities in Israel, India and China. Friday night I had dinner with two leading companies Kaskus and Tokopedia—both essentially community sites that have elements of eBay and Craigslist. Edison of Tokopedia was talking about how many ideas they get from reading the forums on Kaskus. “Wait, do you guys consider yourselves direct competitors?” I asked. Both laughed and said yes, sort of, but Darwis explained, “The market is so small, we’re better off helping each other.”

    This seems obvious if you’re in the Valley, but I can’t tell you how uncommon it is in most places I’ve been in the last few years. Well done, Jakarta. Don’t lose that—as Boston learned the hard way, it’s a formidable advantage.

    Now, some answers to that title question, mostly courtesy of the entrepreneurs photographed above.

    How Many Web Users Are in Indonesia? Reports vary from 38 million users to 8% of the population, which would equal more like 20 million. If the previous reports are true, that’s close to Internet usage totals in Brazil and India, far more hyped and targeted markets. But that’s just for accessing Internet over computers. Web mobile is huge and Blackberries are the default device. Data services and cheap and you can buy Blackberry data service by the day on prepaid phones, upping the accessibility even more. Access to Facebook and Twitter are advertised on mobile billboards around the country, which is why the audience seems even larger for these services—most people are only interacting with them on their Blackberries.

    Why Is the Indonesian Web Swarmy? Part of this is answered above—it’s a huge market that few players are explicitly targeting, even larger when you factor in the mobile Web. That means that as many people may be logging onto your site from Indonesia as from India or Brazil, but you have probably heard so much about Brazil and India being big emerging markets that the swell doesn’t catch you off guard. Few people know anything about Indonesia—let alone that it has 240 million people, almost as much as the US. So the swells can be surprising.

    How Many Web Entrepreneurs Are in Indonesia? This crew estimated between 300 and 1,000 in Jakarta. Mamuaya has personally written about more than 300, and upwards of 1,000 have attended different founder events. Unlike the Valley, most of the “startup people” are founders—most of these companies are still pretty small. (More on entrepreneurs outside Jakarta in a future post.)

    Does Anyone Make Money on the Indonesian Web? Most of them do not. There are two problems, they tell me. Indonesians do not want to pay for the Web, so founders are loathe to follow the Chinese model of amassing a large number of micro-payments to build a big company. “There is a big difference between one penny and free here,” Edison of Tokopedia says. So most are following the Valley playbook of build-and-monetize later. That may be a risky strategy: Encouraging the idea that the Web is free, rather than setting expectations from the beginning. But the reticence is also practical: Few people have credit cards and banks don’t have a universal payment system that ecommerce can exploit.

    Advertising can actually be lucrative, even at this nascent stage. Part of that is because a lot of big brands are waking up to the Indonesia’s large, untapped market and there aren’t a lot of mass media platforms to advertise over. Kaskus makes $50,000 (US) a month in advertising, more than double what it takes to run the business every month.

    Are There Traditional, Early-Stage VCs in Indonesia? As far as I can tell, there is exactly one and it’s not a traditional firm. East Ventures—a Singapore-based angel fund set up by Batara Eto, the founder of mixi.jp, the Japanese social networking site and others. They’re not based here, but have spent time in Jakarta scouting deals and have recently funded Tokopedia and Urbanesia. (Mamuaya reports here that a few more firms are coming or at least considering the move.)

    Is Anyone in the West Trying to Buy These Companies? Again, as far as I can tell, there is exactly one suitor, although this one is more traditional: Yahoo. This insight was a lot newsier when I first drafted this post a few days ago. But Koprol aside, Yahoo has approached half-a-dozen small, up-and-coming Indonesian Web startups, this crew said. So far no other deals have been reached. But Yahoo clearly sees something here and likely isn’t done.

    What is the Biggest Challenge Indonesian Web Entrepreneurs Face? Surprisingly, no one I asked said capital or exits. The relative lack of big, lucrative coding jobs from the multinationals like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft and the lack of venture capital have kept developer wages and costs of building a startup incredibly low. No one seems to feel a real pain for venture capital, because none of these companies are started with an expectation of it. This makes Indonesia absolutely unique among the 11 or so countries I’ve visited in the last two years. Instead, the pain point is finding developers. In Indonesia, developers are considered an entry level position, not a lucrative career path. Most companies have to invest six months or so in training the talent they need, making scaling up a challenge.

    4 of 10 iPhones Sold to Enterprise Users

    Published: May 28th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment

    Thumbnail image for iphone-os-preview-business20100407.pngThe idea is pretty much dead that the iPhone is just for your personal life. But to see that 40 percent of iPhone sales are for the enterprise is a bit of shocker.

    But according to Larry Dignan of ZDNet, that’s just what an AT&T executive said at a conference this week.

    Ron Spears, CEO of AT&T’s Business Solutions, said 4 of 10 iPhones are sold for business use. He also said increasingly the enterprise views the iPhone as a mobile computer that can even serve to replace a laptop.

    Sponsor

    Well, we find it impressive enough when someone like Graeme Thickens tells us he blogs from his iPhone. But to conduct business, handle documents and manage other tasks seems quite a feat in itself. Spears, though, said an iPhone can work just fine for people in the field who really just need one or two applications.

    And he said it’s a lot cheaper, too, than a $1,000 or $1,200 laptop. That makes sense to some extent but netbooks are pretty affordable these days. In that respect, the iPad will sure to see its day in the enterprise, too.

    Will Android devices have the same potential? We think so. It’s not your uncle’s enterprise anymore. It’s mobile. It’s more savvy to the emerging apps universe. Android fits into that scope.

    A mobile device has to be awesome enough to be used for both personal and business use. Apple accomplishes that and the Android is getting there, too.

    Discuss


    5nm crystals could lead to vastly larger optical discs, mighty fine time machines

    Published: May 26th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment

    Blu-ray was already looking mighty fine at 25GB of storage per layer — and if Sony manages to make the indigo foil sheets hold 33.4GB each, we certainly won’t complain — but Japanese researchers have discovered a compound that could leapfrog Blu-ray entirely. Scientists at the University of Tokyo discovered that by hitting 5-nanometer titanium pentoxide crystals with a laser, they could get the metal to change color and conduct less electricity, leading to what they believe is an effective new medium for optical data storage. At 5nm, the small black crystals could reportedly hold 1,000 times the data of Blu-ray at the same density, and cost less to boot — the scholars reportedly synthesized the formula simply by adding hydrogen to the common, comparatively cheap titanium dioxide, while heating the compound over a fire. Ahh, nanotechnology — making our lives easier, one microscopic crystal or tube at a time.

    5nm crystals could lead to vastly larger optical discs, mighty fine time machines originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 03:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink   |  sourceAFP (PhysOrg)  | Email this | Comments

    A Taste of Startup Alley

    Published: May 26th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment

    A hundred startups lined-up the Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt. Here’s just a small taste of some of the interesting companies that over 1,700 attendees were able to see:

    6rounds

    6rounds, which we wrote about in a previous post can be best described as a snazzy one-on-one video chat product.

    At TechCrunch Disrupt, 6rounds announced a new API for developers of game, entertainment and collaboration-based apps. With the API, developers can easily integrate all the rich and interactive functionality of 6rounds, including gifting, video effects, and the ability to add multi-user functionality to single player games and videos.

    AppFirst

    AppFirst provides real-time visibility into the performance of individual applications within application stacks. The idea behind AppFirst’s SaaS-based performance management is to provide visibility into the performance and operational characteristics of applications regardless of language, application type or location (cloud, physical or virtual servers).

    With this type of visibility organizations can flag changes before they become problems and have a negative impact on internal users, or external customers.

    AppFirst is NYC-based with backing by FirstMark Capital and First Round Capital.

    RankAbove

    Seven months after we wrote about its closed beta, RankAbove is pushing its automated SEO analysis product, Drive, into open beta.

    Drive is intended for sites with a minimum of 1000 pages, up to several million. It performs everything from keyword research and on-page analysis, to link building and acquisition.

    For the open beta, RankAbove made some product improvements such as new backlink analysis tool, daily updated competitive analysis, opportunities to find organic relevant backlinks and a new UI. If you’re at Disrupt, stop by their booth for a free site analysis.

    sProphet

    sProphet (Sports Prophet) lets fans share sports knowledge by predicting outcomes of real sporting events. For example, they can predict which baseball batter will have the longest batting streak in the MLB this week.

    Users play with virtual money to challenge their friends and arrange group prediction tournaments.

    sProphet is offered through a destination site, via a Facebook application and soon through a widget which will be offered to partners such as sports sites and portals.

    Information provided by CrunchBase
    Information provided by CrunchBase
    Information provided by CrunchBase
    Information provided by CrunchBase

    Alex Williams Now Managing ReadWriteEnterprise & ReadWriteCloud

    Published: May 26th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment

    This month we’re quietly re-launching our ReadWriteEnterprise channel, with a new sponsor: Intel and Microsoft. We’ve hired Alex Williams full-time, to manage both of our enterprise-focused channels: ReadWriteEnterprise and ReadWriteCloud. We will also be introducing a new daily writer to ReadWriteEnterprise shortly.

    I’d like to formally welcome Alex to his new role. He has been doing a lot of traveling in recent times for us, attending enterprise and cloud events. He will continue to be out and about in his new role. Indeed this week Alex is at the cloud computing focused Gluecon in Denver, where he’ll be moderating a session entitled “Managing Complexity in the Cloud.” You’ll also be able to catch up with him at the Enterprise 2.0 event in Boston in June.

    Sponsor

    You may be wondering what the difference is between ReadWriteEnterprise and ReadWriteCloud.

    ReadWriteEnterprise is a resource and guide for IT managers and business people in the Enterprise. The channel will profile online solutions and outline best practices within the enterprise.

    ReadWriteCloud is aimed at a more technical audience. It is dedicated to helping software architects and engineers understand the strategic business and technical implications of Virtualization and Cloud Computing.

    Discuss


    Amazon’s Kindle 2.5 software update begins to roll out

    Published: May 24th, 2010 | Author: michael Add Comment

    We knew it was destined for a late-May release, and it looks as if Amazon’s going to make its deadline after all. Following a preview of the 2.5 software update a few weeks back, we’ve got pictorial proof that the new code is being pushed out as we speak. This particular unit is a Kindle DX, and it’s not hesitant in showing off the social networking features we were promised. Feel free to poke around in the gallery below, and then fire up your own Kindle to see if you’ve received an OTA surprise. Let us know either way in comments below, won’tcha?

    [Thanks, Andreas]

    Amazon’s Kindle 2.5 software update begins to roll out originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 02:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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