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<title>Haaze.com / nakedcelebrityi / All</title>
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<pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:11:32 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[DirecTV working on Netflix-like streaming service]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=directv-working-on-netflix-like-streaming-service</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=directv-working-on-netflix-like-streaming-service</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:11:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>nakedcelebrityi</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=directv-working-on-netflix-like-streaming-service</guid>
<description><![CDATA[DirecTV has sent a survey to some of its customers asking about their use of Netflix and whether they would like to see the satellite provider deliver a streaming service of its own, according to a digital-media enthusiast site that obtained the document.&quot;In this next section, we would like you to evaluate a new service that DirecTV is thinking about offering to their customers,&quot; the survey reads, according to ZatzNotFunny. &quot;DirecTV plans to offer a streaming-only Netflix-like service for a flat fee per month, which would appear as a line item on your monthly bill.&quot;The company said its service would deliver &quot;thousands of movies and television shows&quot; streaming over the Web to &quot;your television, computer, ortablet.&quot; The content would encompass series episodes through last season, as well as older films.If DirecTV gets into the streaming business, it would join an increasingly crowded market, led by Netflix. Amazon.com, Hulu, and Vudu are competing in that market, as well. DirecTV's chief satellite TV competitor, Dish Network, already has the Dish Online online streaming service and just completed its acquisition of Blockbuster, which in addition to its struggling brick-and-mortar stores also has an on-demand service. Last week, Dish also announced that it had brought HBO and Cinemax content to its online-streaming service. With that addition, Dish Online was able to score a win over Netflix, which has not been given the chance to offer HBO content on its own streaming service.Even so, it's Netflix that DirecTV seems most concerned about. Throughout the entire survey that ZatzNotFunny obtained, DirecTV asks about its subscribers' viewing habits, including how many shows or movies they watch each week on Netflix, how long they watch Netflix's content, and more. The company even asked which Netflix plan--a streaming-only option or one with both DVD rentals and streaming--the respondent was currently paying for.Of course, worrying about Netflix over any other streaming service might make sense. Last month, research firm NPD reported that Netflix's service was tapped for 61 percent of all movies downloaded or streamed between January and February. The second-place company, Comcast, earned 8 percent of that market. DirecTV tied for third place with both Time Warner Cable and Apple, with just 4 percent market share each.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[When will Apple announce a Verizon iPhone (Poll)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=when-will-apple-announce-a-verizon-iphone-poll</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=when-will-apple-announce-a-verizon-iphone-poll</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>nakedcelebrityi</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=when-will-apple-announce-a-verizon-iphone-poll</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A Verizon-powered iPhone could be announced as early as next week.(Credit:Kent German/CNET)Could Apple announce a VerizoniPhone as early as next week According to an anonymous tipster who contacted me directly, yes indeedy.During this weekend's 2011 CES, he says, Apple will steal some thunder by announcing a product-launch event on Tuesday, January 11. (That's 1/11/11, if you're into numerology.) At that event, the company will finally announce the long-awaited Verizon iPhone. (Cue &quot;Hallelujah&quot; chorus.)Alas, this is all just hearsay, and while a lot of it seems reasonable--likely, even--there's still no official word from either Apple or Verizon.My tipster, citing a close relative who works high up the Apple food chain, said the new iPhone will be CDMA-based (no surprise there) and ship in February. He also noted that Apple was limiting staff vacation time for January and February, ostensibly to handle a sharp increase in sales and service traffic.For further indication that a Verizon iPhone launch is imminent, check out this recently leaked listing of Case-Mate cases. Of course, that doesn't indicate when it will happen, only that it will.What do you think I'm sure you've seen the rumors that have been piling up in recent weeks. Will Apple finally give us the goods next week Or will the next announcements focus exclusively on theiPad 2 (which also appears to be a foregone conclusion at this point), leaving Verizon iPhone news to come later Heck, maybe we won't find out until June, which is typically when Apple dishes its iPhone news.Vote in our poll, then hit the comments to share your thoughts!When will Apple announce a Verizon iPhoneMarket Research<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA['Tenfold' growth in mobile game ads expected]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tenfold-growth-in-mobile-game-ads-expected</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tenfold-growth-in-mobile-game-ads-expected</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>nakedcelebrityi</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tenfold-growth-in-mobile-game-ads-expected</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Mobile games are expected to be a major target for advertisers in the coming years.Last year, companies spent $87 million on ads in mobile games, according to Juniper Research. But over the next five years, advertisers will focus more heavily on the sector. In fact, the market researcher expects companies to spend as much as $894 million on ads in mobile games in 2015 alone.However, that doesn't mean that advertising will rule mobile-game revenue. Quite the contrary, Juniper Research believes that fees developers charge consumers to download a game to their smartphones or to buy virtual goods in-game &quot;will still be 10 times higher.&quot;In November, Juniper released a report that predicts total mobile-game revenue will top $11 billion by 2015.That's probably good news for Angry Birds maker Rovio. Aside from offering one of the most popular mobile games in the world--the title has more than 50 million users playing a cumulative 200 million minutes per day--Rovio is also planning to launch a new in-app payment system.Dubbed Bad Piggy Bank, the service is designed to make it easier for consumers to buy content in-game. Rather than input a credit card or bank information, Rovio's service will charge consumers on their mobile phone bill, creating a &quot;one-touch payment&quot; system.In order to implement Bad Piggy Bank, developers need to ink a deal with Rovio. The company didn't divulge details regarding its revenue-sharing agreement with developers but said at the time that it would be &quot;much, much better for developers than current app store models.&quot; Bad Piggy Bank is scheduled to launch later this year.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Confessions of a Hashable addict]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=confessions-of-a-hashable-addict</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=confessions-of-a-hashable-addict</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>nakedcelebrityi</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=confessions-of-a-hashable-addict</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In early September, I noticed introductions popping up on Twitter always cca4a4ing @Hashable. My first impression was that they were incredibly stupid vanity tweets clogging my Twitter feed. Three months later I have to confess that I am a Hashable addict.Hashable is a networking and contact-management service that rose from the ashes of Tracked, a Yahoo-Finance like site that launched in late 2009. The service facilitates introductions and allows you to post your real  world  interactions &amp;8211' justmet @mikeyavo or greatmeeting w/ Emily  Hickey&amp;8211'  using Twitter or email. Hashable organizes all your  introductions and  interactions in an address book.Users earn points for activity, called HashCred, with the most active users ranked on Hashablea4a4s leader board.In late 2009, Hashable founder and CEO Mike Yavonditte had raised about $11.5 million from Union Square Ventures and a number of angel investors for his company, Tracked. He brought in chief marketing officer Emily Hickey in January of 2010, along with Quigo alums Teddy Jawde and Dave Sebag to run product development. While in  the beginning they attempted to turn Tracked around, they eventually  decided to pivot towards what became Hashable.a4AI could tell in the first week it wasna4a4t going to work,a4 Yavonditte recalls. Yavonditte&amp;'s previous company Quigo sold to AOL for $360 million in 2007.I began using Hashable in September after a demo from Yavonditte at the companya4a4s New York office.Hashable undertook a grass roots campaign directed at key influencers in the New York City tech scene similar to that employed by Linkedin in the Valley during its early days. Soon a fierce battle for the top of the leaderboard ensued.Super networkers like angel investors John Frankel and Jeff Singer, Lowenstein Sandler attorney Ed Zimmerman, and First Round Capital Principal Charlie Oa4a4Donnell became power users while the service remained in beta testing. You couldna4a4t check Twitter without seeing a Hashable intro or justmet hashtag in your feed.Hashablea4a4s traction sparked Singer to push for a new round of financing, despite the fact that Hashable had enough cash in the bank to last until the end of 2011.a4AIt took me one week to say, Mike Ia4a4d like to lead a round for you,a4 Singer told me. a4AIta4a4s a dashboard for my life.a4Union Square Ventures was soon on board as a $2 million round grew to $4 million at a $30 million post-money valuation that priced out a number of prominent New York City angels. Hashable, still in private beta, now has over 10,000 users and around $8 million in the bank.While competing for the leaderboard motivated many people to use Hashable, utility won out over vanity for me. Hashable makes it easier for me to network.My task list used to be clogged with instructions to follow up on intros Ia4a4ve made or received. After meeting someone, I would try to write a summary of our conversation on the back of his or her business card.Now I use Hashable, cca4a4ing the service on email intros and receiving updates notifying me if the people I introduced actually connected. While Ia4a4m a little more reticent to share all of my interactions on a daily basis, I use Hashable privately.The game mechanics have some annoying side effects, however. Responding to complaints about spam intros, the company has recently changed the point system to reward successful and useful introductions, an effort that has significantly reduced the volume of bad intros I receive.Game mechanics also inspire people to do Twitter intros, increasing usersa4a4 Hashcred while clogging Twitter streams with spam. Twitter introductions are lazy, providing little context for intro recipients as introducers vainly move up the leaderboard.Yavonditte told me that the Hashable team continues to adjust the scoring system in order to incentivize positive interactions and fight users who try to game the system.Even as I am annoyed by the poor Twitter etiquette of many Hashable users, I still use the service. While Ia4a4m ranked 25 this month and all-time on the Hashable Global Leaderboard, the only thing it has gotten me are Twitter followers. I post interactions to the service every day and use it for every email introduction I make. Hashable&amp;'s utility, not my own vanity, is the reason.Previous Story: On the GreenBeat: IKEA stops selling incandescent light bulbs, green VC totaled $400 million in 2010PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Companies: Hashable, Quigo, TrackedPeople: Mike Yavonditte          Companies: Hashable, Quigo, TrackedPeople: Mike YavonditteJacob is an entrepreneur and blogger living in New York City. He is the founder and CEO of Standard Start, a non-profit providing free standardized legal documents and education to startup businesses. He also serves as an advisor to Girls In Tech and Entrepreneur's Roundtable.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Solyndra and government support for cleantech under fire]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=solyndra-and-government-support-for-cleantech-under-fire</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=solyndra-and-government-support-for-cleantech-under-fire</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>nakedcelebrityi</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=solyndra-and-government-support-for-cleantech-under-fire</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As public and political eyes turn to the federal budget and cost-cutting, Silicon Valley startups backed by Department of Energy loan guarantees and grants are coming under scrutiny.Solar cell company Solyndra is at the front of this. There&amp;'s a planned Congressional investigation to evaluate for whether Solyndra was an appropriate candidate for the $535 million loan guarantee it received. Since winning the loan guarantee, the company has laid off workers, cancelled an IPO and closed down its first factory.Range Fuels and the government&amp;'s support of biofuels was criticized in a WSJ editorial this month. Venture capitalist and Range Fuels backer Vinod Khosla has penned strong responses to the editorial. While the WSJ piece said Range received $76 million in DOE grants only to produce lackluster results and close down a factory, Khosla said the company only took half of that amount and argues Range is making progress. He also pointed out that the government heavily subsidizes the oil industry.Loan guarantees to electric car startups Tesla ($465 million) and Fisker ($529 million) have also been criticized in the past. One argument is that these companies have been able to successfully raise cash from private investors, so they don&amp;'t need taxpayer support. And now that Tesla is a publicly traded company, is it appropriate for taxpayers to keep supporting its operations Fisker could be a target, too. It has experienced several delays in releasing and producing its luxury plug-in hybrid, and has raised the planned price of the Fisker Karma by 20 percent over the past few years. Fisker has attributed the delays to the 2008 financial crisis. The car will go into production in March' Fisker raised $150 million this month and has an IPO in its sights.Still, startups are always risky ventures, and ups, downs, delays and mistakes are inevitable as companies try to move into commercial production. Loan guarantees do boost companies and help them receive more favorable financing terms than they would otherwise, lessening some of the obstacles to success startups face. DOE loan guarantees are meant to subsidize areas that have &amp;''transformative&amp;'' potential and need government backing to prove their value to the market and investors. In the case of solar and electric cars, loan guarantees typically go towards manufacturing facilities, as was the case in the recent loan guarantees to solar makers SoloPower ($197 million) and Abound Solar ($400 million).DOE loan chief Jonathan Silver came out in support for Solyndra when we talked to him last year. He pointed out that Solyndra was planning to close the factory, it just happened sooner than intended. Solyndra has not been granted any loan funds and is reportedly on track to produce 300 megawatts of panels annually, which is higher than the 210 megawatts estimated at the project inception.We asked the DOE for a response on the scrutiny on Solyndra lately, and here&amp;'s the statement provided by the press office:&amp;''The Department of Energy conducts extensive and ongoing monitoring for all projects that receive loan guarantees.  The loan guarantee for Solyndra is supporting the construction of a manufacturing facility which is well underway, and is, in fact, 4-8 weeks ahead of schedule.  To date, the company has hired 3,000 construction workers and over 1,000 employees to fill permanent positions.  We anticipate the project will continue as planned, however, we take our responsibility to protect taxpayer interests very seriously, and will continue to work with Solyndra to find appropriate solutions to any challenges it may face.&amp;''The investigation into the Solyndra loan guarantee is being spearheaded by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of theHouse Energy and Commerce Committee.Upton sent a letter to DOE Secretary Steven Chu asking for documents related to the Solyndra decision. The letter outlines Solyndra&amp;'s lack of profits (which is the case for most startups), and also points to an audit that pointed out the company&amp;'s shakiness and ultimately contributed to Solyndra yanking its IPO plans last year.The audit is an interesting point. Although Solyndra&amp;'s technology &amp;8212' racks of of tubular solar cells &amp;8212' seems genuinely innovative (see the greenhouse roofing application, right), it seems to have vastly underestimated its capital needs and overestimated what it could deliver. A PricewaterhouseCooper audit last year ahead of its IPO plans found massive losses and negative cash flow since the companya4a4s founding, as well as mounting debt that could bury operations within a year. The company appeared to be running out of money five years into the business despite raising $970 million. After cancelling the IPO, Solyndra opted to raise $175 million through promissory notes instead.[Top image via OpenPhoto]Previous Story: Square eliminates its credit card transaction feePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: electric cars, loan guarantees, SolarCompanies: DOE, Fisker, Range Fuels, Solyndra, TeslaPeople: Jonathan Silver, Vinod Khosla          Tags: electric cars, loan guarantees, SolarCompanies: DOE, Fisker, Range Fuels, Solyndra, TeslaPeople: Jonathan Silver, Vinod KhoslaIris Kuo is the VentureBeat's lead GreenBeat writer. She has reported for The Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong, Houston Chronicle, the McClatchy Washington Bureau and Dallas public radio. Iris attended the University of Texas at Dallas and lives in Houston. Follow Iris on Twitter @thestatuskuo (and yes, that's how you  pronounce her last name). Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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