Amazon's IMDB.com Hosts First Music Video Premiere

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Seattle – Amazon.com’s (NASD: AMZN) IMDb.com entertainment information
database on Tuesday offered its first world premiere of a music video, for the
Band of Horses song "Dilly." "We believe IMDb can serve as a
powerful new platform for musicians to introduce compelling, exclusive content
to our passionate community of more than 100 million entertainment enthusiasts,"
said IMDb founder and CEO Col Needham.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/39tawkm

http://www.imdb.com/bandofhorses

Zynga: 320 Million Have Played Social Game Titles

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

San Francisco – Zynga, the current top social games
publisher, says 320 million people have played its online games to date,
Forbes.com reported, citing remarks from CEO Mark Pincus at the Web 2.0
Conference. Pincus also related that Zynga games count over 3 million
concurrent users at peak times, and that there have been around 650,000
same-sex marriages between players’ characters in its "FrontierVille"
title.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/25hqklz
(Forbes)

http://www.zynga.com

Universal Music Taps SongHi.com for Rihanna Contest

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Helsinki – Universal Music Group has tapped Swedish music
game creator SongHi.com for a contest to promote the release of singer
Rihanna’s latest album. The competition will see contestants utilize SongHi.com
to create their own songs. Those whose tracks receive at least 20
"likes" on Facebook or SongHi are eligible to win a trip for two to
see Rihanna perform live in Sydney, Australia.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/35xjyyw

http://www.songhi.com

Yahoo Launches "Local Offers" Aggregator

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
1

Sunnyvale, Calif. – Looking to jump into the increasingly
popular group buying market, Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) said it has partnered with 12 online and
offline providers of local discounts to launch "Local Offers."

Currently in limited beta release, the service will aggregate daily offers to
local restaurants, spas and retailers from Groupon, LivingSocial, Gilt City,
BloomSpot, BuyWithMe, DealOn, Zozi, CrowdSavings, Lifebooker, FreshGuide, Scoop
St, Goldstar, HomeRun, Tippr, Coupons.com and Valpak.

Matt Idema, the vice
president of Yahoo Local, said the service "[takes] the complexity out of
finding the great local deals that are most relevant to their interests and
needs."

The company also said it can bring increased distribution to
partners through its large audience reach.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/2fqjtjf

Social Video Browser Shufflr Lands $3 Million

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Bangalore, India – Althea Systems, developer of the Shufflr
social video browser, has raised $3 million in its first round of venture
capital financing, led by Intel Capital.

India-based Althea’s Shufflr provides
personalized video recommendations.

The company is working on versions of its
service for smartphones, tables and TVs.

Althea will use the investment to
expand its development team and marketing efforts.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/262ocsj

http://shufflr.tv

Verismo Networks Raises $17 Million for Internet TV Platform

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Mountain View, Calif. – Verismo Networks, an open Internet
TV platform, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $17 million in a new round
of financing, led by Intel Capital.

Mountain View, Calif. -based Verismo’s
products help digital video service providers expand their offerings outside of
their own service areas.

The company will use the funds to accelerate its
growth and expand sales and marketing operations.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/262ocsj

http://www.verismonetworks.com

Google "Hotpot" Offers Local Business Recommendations

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) has introduced
"Hotpot," a new feature for its Google Places listings of local
businesses that provides recommendations based on the suggestions of friends
and other Google users.

The service tracks a user’s reviews in Google Places,
learning preferences to display recommendations of local restaurants, stores
and other venues alongside aggregated reviews from third-party services like
Yelp and Urbanspoon.

Wired notes that the process of adding friends to the
service does not feature a good deal of automation, perhaps a cautionary move
following the privacy controversy that followed the launch of Google Buzz.

 

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20022907-264.html

http://tinyurl.com/2fy3y9u
(Wired)

http://google.com/hotpot

Cloud Storage Service Backupify Acquires TweetBackup

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Cambridge, Mass. – Backupify, a provider of online backup,
archiving and export services for cloud-based data, announced on Tuesday it has
acquired TweetBackup, a privately held service that performs automated daily
backups of over 62 million Tweets for thousands of users.

TweetBackup protects
Twitter accounts from a variety of vulnerabilities, including hackers,
accidental deletion and service outages, by archiving "follower" and
"following" lists, messages with specific hash tags and Twitpic
photos.

Backupify said that the acquisition underscores its efforts to maintain
its market position as a provider of cloud-based data backup and management.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

 

Related Links:
http://www.backupify.com

http://www.tweetbackup.com

First 36 Minutes of New Harry Potter Movie Leaked Online

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Los Angeles – The first 36 minutes of the new Harry Potter
film has been leaked onto file-sharing networks days before the movie is slated
to premiere worldwide, TorrentFreak reported.

The leaked portion of "Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" appears to be a "partial screener"
released by Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX)

TorrentFreak notes that last year, "Harry Potter
and the Half-Blood Prince" made the site’s  "Most Pirated Movies" list, with close to 8 million
downloads via file-sharing networks.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/24zct8k
(TorrentFreak)

Microsoft: 1 Million Kinect Game Sensors Sold in 10 Days

By
Mark Hefflinger
-
0

Redmond, Wash. – Microsoft (NASD:  MSFT) announced on Tuesday that its
Kinect motion-sensing game controller for the Xbox 360 surpassed one million
units sold worldwide after ten days on sale. "We are appreciative of the
response we have seen from consumers that has culminated in sales of more than
1 million units in the first 10 days on the market for Kinect for Xbox
360," said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment
Business at Microsoft.

"This is a great start to the holiday season, and
we will continue to work with our retailer partners to keep pace with high
demand and deliver against our plan to sell more than 5 million Kinect sensors
worldwide by the end of this year."

Before the $150 Kinect launched,
Microsoft upped its worldwide sales forecast for the Kinect from 3 million to 5
million units.

Kinect is available in North America and Europe, and will launch
in parts of Asia on Nov. 18 and in Japan on Nov. 20.

 

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/35wcj7v

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