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<title>Haaze.com / critolly / Published News</title>
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<pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
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<title><![CDATA[Ford to use recycled clothes in next-gen Focus]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ford-to-use-recycled-clothes-in-next-gen-focus</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ford-to-use-recycled-clothes-in-next-gen-focus</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>critolly</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ford-to-use-recycled-clothes-in-next-gen-focus</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Cotton from recycled blue jeans, and other materials, will appear in the new Focus as part of its effort to use eco-friendly materials.(Credit:Ford)Ford's spin on &quot;reduce, reuse, and recycle&quot; includes your old blue jeans.The auto maker today announced that the 2012 Focus, on sale early next year in North America and Europe, will use cotton from recycled clothing for carpet backing and sound-absorption materials inside thecar. These materials will supposedly provide a much quieter cabin.&quot;Ford is continually looking for greener alternatives,&quot; said Carrie Majeske, product sustainability manager. &quot;Recycled content is a way to divert waste from landfills and reduce the impact of mining virgin material.&quot;Ford already uses non-metal recycled and bio-based materials in new vehicles (such as the 2011 Explorer), including soy foam seat cushions, recycled resins for underbody systems, recycled yarns on seat covers, and natural-fiber plastic for interior components.Ford says it will use the equivalent of two pairs of blue jeans in each new Focus.&quot;The good news is these jeans didn't end up in a landfill, nor did we use the water, fertilizer, and land to grow virgin cotton,&quot; Majeske said. &quot;It's an alternative that our customers can appreciate, it's cost effective, and it's better for our planet. These are the kinds of sustainable solutions we are looking for in all our vehicles.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[At Cleantech Open, less is more]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=at-cleantech-open-less-is-more</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=at-cleantech-open-less-is-more</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>critolly</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=at-cleantech-open-less-is-more</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This year's Cleantech Open 2010 Business Competition winner, announced last week, is Puralytics, a company developing photochemical water purification products.Since 2006, the Cleantech Open has offered a venue for competition amonggreen tech start-up companies looking for funding. Winning alumni of the contest include Cool Earth Solar, Green Volts, and Micromidas.This year's winner, Puralytics, is an Oregon-based start-up that uses natural sunlight or LED lighting as the catalysts to remove pathogens, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals from waste water. Its processes under development have applications for both industrial manufacturing facilities and small rural communities. Puralytics will receive $250,000 in a combination of cash and services from sponsor companies.Runners up included EarthClean and OnChip Power.Minnesota-based Earth Clean came up with what many would call a practical clean idea for fighting fires. The start-up has developed a fire suppressant called TetraKO. The water additive gel, which can be used in existing fire hoses for building fires or aerial spray systems for forest fires, is non-toxic to plants and wildlife, and completely biodegradable. When mixed with water, TetraKO creates a sticky substance that adheres to vertical surfaces as well as ceilings, which the company says improves fire suppression and reduces chances for rekindling. Upon prolonged exposure to heat, the substance evaporates as steam leaving no residue.The other runner-up, which was also the Northeast Regional winner, is OnChip Power, a start-up based in Massachusetts that grew out of MIT. It makes miniature VHF power supply components. The company says its OnChip Power is &quot;10x smaller size, 3x longer life, 20x faster response, 1/2 the component count.&quot;&quot;You know the brick on your laptop power cord We make that thing the size of a quarter,&quot; OnChip Power Founder and CEO Vanessa Green said in a video interview backstage during the Cleantech Open awards ceremony in San Francisco on November 17.The &quot;People's Choice&quot; winner, which receives $100,000 in services from sponsor companies to bring their idea to market, went to Silicon Solar Solutions. The Arkansas-based start-up is developing a process to reduce the amount of silicon needed to manufacture solar cells without sacrificing their efficiency.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[History Here launches for Windows Phone 7]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=history-here-launches-for-windows-phone-7</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=history-here-launches-for-windows-phone-7</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 12 Nov 2010 08:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>critolly</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=history-here-launches-for-windows-phone-7</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The History Here app costs $2.99.(Credit:History)Attention all history buffs. The History Channel, which is now simply called &quot;History,&quot; has made its entry into the Windows Phone marketplace with History Here, a location-based app that combines GPS with historical content to a &quot;mobile guidebook.&quot;If you've got a newWindows Phone 7 phone, the app costs $2.99 and currently has information on more than 7,000 locations nationwide, but according to the folks at AETN Digital, which made the app, thousands more historical points of interest will be added in the coming months.As you might expect from an app that's connected to History (sorry, we're having a real hard time not calling it the History Channel), each location is &quot;supplemented with exclusive video, audio of famous speeches, narratives from key moments in history, written content, pictures and maps to create a dynamic visitor's guide to each location.&quot;You can search for locations within a 100-mile radius, filter your search on specific types of points of interest (battlefields or monuments, for example), and display your search results in map view or list view.In all, it seems promising. Hopefully, they'll bring this one to Android andiPhone.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Blow away asteroids and play as a giant worm: iPhone apps of the week]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blow-away-asteroids-and-play-as-a-giant-worm-iphone-apps-of-the-week</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blow-away-asteroids-and-play-as-a-giant-worm-iphone-apps-of-the-week</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 12 Nov 2010 08:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>critolly</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blow-away-asteroids-and-play-as-a-giant-worm-iphone-apps-of-the-week</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:CNET)Hey,iPhone gamers, I received a press release just yesterday that plenty will be excited about: Real Racing 2 is coming soon for the iPhone. As one of my favorite games for 2009, the original Real Racing might be the best in its class for graphics, gameplay, and realism (as the name suggests) among auto-racing games on the iPhone.Though there is no information beyond the announcement (here is Firemint's cryptic info page), I'm personally hoping for new tracks, newcars, and maybe even an accelerometer-based motorcycle racing mode. I admit that last wish is probably far-fetched, but it never hurts to dream, right It almost seems impossible to improve upon the original, so I'm excited to see what Firemint will add in the sequel.Though I can only guess at a release date, the timing of this press release seems to suggest that we could have this product on our iPhones in time for the gift-giving season. I'm crossing my fingers!This week's apps are both arcade games: an advanced Astroids-like title and a game where you play as a man-eating giant worm.Gather ore from asteroids to gain bonus multipliers for bigger scores.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Space Miner Blast (Free) is a slimmed-down arcade version of one of my favorite games on the iPhone called Space Miner: Space Ore Bust. The original game included a storyline in which you tried to keep your uncle's space-mining company afloat by mining various sectors of space and using the ore to make money so you could upgrade your ship. Though I still recommend the original as a more involved and unique game, Space Miner Blast takes the basic gameplay mechanic (flying around and shooting asteroids) and makes it into a fun challenge on its own.Space Miner Blast tasks you with battling your way through wave after wave of asteroids and spaceships, all while grabbing power-ups to add to your firepower. Similar to the arcade classic Asteroids, Space Miner Blast uses a control scheme that lets you control your ship on the left side of the screen with your main fire buttons and thrust on the right. You'll need to shoot large asteroids to break them up into smaller pieces and blow away the remaining rocks by following the blue arrow indicators around your ship. As you progress through the game, harder enemies like UFOs and mines will make your job more difficult, but fortunately you can find shields as you play, and you can upgrade your ship in between levels for more firepower.Space Miner Blast is an ad-supported free game. To get rid of the ads you have the option to buy one of three advanced ships for 99 cents each or you can allegedly by the Blast Pack of all the ships for only $1.99. As of this writing, I was unable to locate the Blast Pack in the menus, but hopefully the developers will fix this soon so you don't have to buy all three ships at 99 cents each.Part of what made the original Space Miner: Space Ore Bust such a great game was the classic Asteroids game mechanic. With Space Miner Blast, you get a game that the developers say &quot;Brings asteroids into the 21st century!&quot; and I can't help but agree. Anyone who liked the original game or the classic Asteroids will love this shoot-'em-up action game.Sneak up from underground to take the evil humans by surprise.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Death Worm (99 cents for a limited time) is a lot like a game I reviewed not long ago called Super Mega Worm and is the original game that Mega Worm was based upon. Already a widely acclaimed indie title, Death Worm is a great fit for the iPhone andiPod touch screen. The control system involves a directional pad on the left and buttons for nitro and firebombs on the right. The object of the game is to take out as many humans as possible as you worm your way underground and breach the surface to create havoc against a military onslaught. As you progress, your worm will level up, letting you add more nitro power, better fireballs, and stronger skin. Death Worm is an excellent time waster, but not terribly challenging in the early levels, leaving you wondering just what it will take to bring you down. But as the game goes on, you'll be challenged by tanks, cars, rocket-launcher-wielding soldiers, helicopters, and more. In later levels, you'll struggle to stay alive long enough to level up, giving you full health to continue on. Overall, with 45 levels to play across three themed locations, 30 enemy types to contend with, and enough explosions and carnage to satisfy the most serious shoot-'em-up gamers, Death Worm is a great addition to your iPhone game library. What's your favorite iPhone app How do you like the arcade action of Space Miner Blast Which game is better: Super Mega Worm or Death Worm What do you think Firemint will add to Real Racing 2 Let me know in the comments! <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Forkly Unstealths Itself: A Mobile Recommendation Network For Your&nbsp'Tastebuds]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=forkly-unstealths-itself-a-mobile-recommendation-network-for-yournbsptastebuds</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=forkly-unstealths-itself-a-mobile-recommendation-network-for-yournbsptastebuds</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>critolly</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=forkly-unstealths-itself-a-mobile-recommendation-network-for-yournbsptastebuds</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Back in September, we broke the news that not only had two of location startup Brightkite&amp;'s founders left the company, but that they were working on a new project together. While we weren&amp;'t able to dig up much about the new startup at the time, we did learn that it was called Forkly. Today, co-founder Brady Becker is opening up a bit more. &amp;''Wea4a4re hungry, and this time ita4a4s personal,&amp;'' he writes.So what is Forkly Essentially, it&amp;'s a recommendation app for finding food. But unlike the popular Foodspotting, which focuses on individual dish pictures, Forkly is focusing on personalized restaurant recommendations based on your own tastes.How exactly they&amp;'re going to do this is still a bit vague. Becker writes that the current power players that rely on star ratings from people you don&amp;'t know is a flawed system. And he also says that simply asking your social graph is flawed too because friends have different tastes. Here&amp;'s the key part:Wea4a4re building Forkly to make it ridiculously easy to match your taste buds with the food and restaurants around you. Forkly helps you to quickly capture your opinions about your dining experiences. We then use those opinions to offer personalized restaurant, food and drink recommendations, based on YOUR individual tastes.So it sounds like they&amp;'ll have an app which will allow you to quickly rate a restaurant and its food based on certain criteria. They&amp;'ll then match those criteria against others in the system to recommend new places and dishes to you. Of course, that&amp;'s my overly simplified guess, I&amp;'m sure. The magic will be in if it works or not.I&amp;'m sure we&amp;'ll hear more in the coming weeks and months.CrunchBase InformationforklyInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Minus Makes Photo Sharing As Simple As&nbsp'Possible]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=minus-makes-photo-sharing-as-simple-asnbsppossible</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=minus-makes-photo-sharing-as-simple-asnbsppossible</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>critolly</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=minus-makes-photo-sharing-as-simple-asnbsppossible</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It is isn&amp;'t often that a web service needs almost no instructions. Minus, part of the minimalist design trend inspired by apps likea4sGlen Murphy&amp;'s DropMocks, allows you to drag and drop photos from your desktop into your browser in order to arrange into galleries, edit and share via URL. Yes that&amp;'s all it does &amp;8212' Single service web apps are so hot right now.Founders Carl Hu and Johna4sXie want to eventually expand into documents, music video, and other files, but as of yet the Boston based service is delightfully simple, like a no frills imgur. Start your sharing!Update: Apparently Minus has been at the center of some not so simple controversy. Heh. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Why Is The WikiLeaks Twitter Account Only Following&nbsp'TweetBackup]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-is-the-wikileaks-twitter-account-only-followingnbsptweetbackup</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-is-the-wikileaks-twitter-account-only-followingnbsptweetbackup</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>critolly</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-is-the-wikileaks-twitter-account-only-followingnbsptweetbackup</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Even thougha4sAmazon and Paypal have severed their relationships with the controversial to say the least WikiLeaks, the @WikiLeaks Twitter account is still holding strong. Some are wondering why Twitter has as of yet to cut ties with the service after this week&amp;'s leak of 251,287 diplomatica4scables, whicha4spissed some high powered people off to put it lightly.Perhaps WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is wondering the same thing. Which would explain why only account @WikiLeaks is following at the moment is @TweetBackup, a service that allows you to back up your tweets daily.Tweetbackup, run by Backupify, requires that you follow it in order to use it, which means that Assange has no other choice but to follow if he wants Tweetbackup to preserve his tweets in case of a takedown.It&amp;'s interesting to note that by some kind of default Assange, who has all eyes on him at the moment, is basically advertising one service and coincidentally one that protects your Twitter data in cases of deletion. I&amp;'ve contacted Twitter as to whether they would take down the @WikiLeaks account under any circumstances and have yet to hear back.In the meantime TweetBackup representative Charlie Ungashick tells TechCrunch that they haven&amp;'t tried to DM Assange, despite being the only people in the world who have the power to do so. I&amp;'m amazed at their powers of resistance and/or indifference.CrunchBase InformationWikiLeaksBackupifyInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[8D World Gets $5.25 Million More To Teach English As A Foreign Language&nbsp'Online]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=8d-world-gets-5-25-million-more-to-teach-english-as-a-foreign-languagenbsponline</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=8d-world-gets-5-25-million-more-to-teach-english-as-a-foreign-languagenbsponline</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>critolly</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=8d-world-gets-5-25-million-more-to-teach-english-as-a-foreign-languagenbsponline</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ A startup based in Shanghai, with United States headquarters in Woburn, Mass., 8D World, has attracted a series B investment of $5.25 million for their educational take on massively multiplayer online games, the company announced today. Their flagship product, Wiz World Online, uses sophisticated speech assessment features to teach mostly kids and teens English as a foreign language.The founder and chief executive of 8D World, Alex Wang, learned English as a kid in China and was good enough to get a high score on standardized tests.  He found, however, when he came to the United States for university that he couldn&amp;'t initially use his written English skills to do basic things like order food at a restaurant.A couple of decades later, he conceived of a way to use the Web to solve that problem for students and schools, and enlisted Rick Goodman, the developer and co-founder of the popular Age of Empires game franchise, to make Wiz World Online. Wang told TechCrunch in an email from China Wednesday night: &amp;''In the near-term, we will use our capital to focus on two specific areas: extend[ing] our product leadership by incorporating more activities and educational content into the virtual world' and invest[ing] in sales and marketing to drive wider adoption and enhance [our] brand. We have some core competencies in terms of virtual world design. [We know] how to integrate rigorous academic content with virtual world activities and speech technologies. We also have a deep understanding of and connections in local markets in China, South Korea, Japan, Latin America and the U.S.&amp;''The CEO confirmed that 8D World is considering: adapting its systems to deliver other types of coursework, particularly social sciences and math for the U.S. market' and ways in which its virtual worlds can be linked to mobile devices. The company would not disclose specific plans or a timeline for either effort.Today, Wiz World Online uses company-created, educational content to teach English as a foreign language. One of Wiz World Online&amp;'s selling points, however, is that it can incorporate others&amp;' curriculum into its game levels within a couple of weeks.Over 1,500 for-profit brick-and-mortar schools in China, and a number of public schools there, aiming to teach students communicative English rather than English for test-taking purposes, have signed up as 8D World customers so far. Schools tend to use Wiz World Online as homework, or as an interactive component to supplement what they do in the classroom.Educational publishers and media companiesa4&quot; including China&amp;'s CCTV and ONLY Education a4&quot; have also signed up with 8D World to sell or distribute their educational content in a new format to schools. CCTV used Wiz World to run a major, Shanghai-wide oral English competition, in which over 1,000 brick-and-mortar language schools participated. The competition will be held annually for three years, a company spokesman said. Currently, 8D World is adapting its games for, and expanding its sales to the South Korean market. It plans to do the same in other Asian and Latin American markets in 2011. The venture arm of one of Japan&amp;'s largest banks, Mizuho Capital of Japan, led the series B investment along with the company&amp;'s&amp;' earlier investors Spark Capital in Boston, and Gobi Partners in China.A general partner with Spark Capital, Alex Finkelstein, said on Thursday his firm built on its initial investment in 8D World because:&amp;''We think the company is doing something really big. First, the product is very unique. It is hard to build virtual world gaming, curriculum and speech assessment features like the ones included in Wiz World, and make them immersive and motivating for students.  A lot of interactive educational products arena4a4t good at engaging or motivating students. 8D World has also been innovative with their business model. Instead of selling direct to consumers, they reach out and partner with publishers and schools. This is really smart, and new to the education market.&amp;''CrunchBase Information8D WorldSpark CapitalMizuho Venture CapitalInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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