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<title>Haaze.com / poojaagarwal91 / Published News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
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<pubDate>Wed, 04 May 2011 07:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[What the universe looked like 11 billion years ago]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-the-universe-looked-like-11-billion-years-ago</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-the-universe-looked-like-11-billion-years-ago</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 May 2011 07:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=what-the-universe-looked-like-11-billion-years-ago</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Coming soon: Google Maps Galaxy edition(Credit:Sloan Digital Sky Survey via NewScientist)It's hard to imagine what the universe looked like 11 billion years ago, especially when I have trouble imagining what I want to do this weekend. Scientists with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey are helping out by creating what they say is the largest 3D map of our universe. They did so by relying on ancient light emanating from quasars situated many eons away.  Quasars are extremely bright, remote objects that are often referred to as a &quot;galactic nucleus&quot; and emit incredible amounts of energy. A total of 14,000 quasars were tapped to create the map, and mapmakers used them in conjunction with interstellar hydrogen gas clouds that absorb light as it travels to Earth.  The detail in the map is based on wavelengths of quasar light that are absorbed by hydrogen gas clouds, revealing specific wavelengths of light and the distance between each. The result is a stunning 11-billion-year-old cosmological model.A slice of the 3D image. Who would have thought the universe is basically a giant mood ring Red areas indicate more gas, while blue means less. Click to enlarge.(Credit:A. Slosar and the SDSS-III collaboration)&quot;Here, we are looking at intergalactic hydrogen gas, which blocks light,&quot; researcher Anze Slosar, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, told Space.com. &quot;It's like looking at the moon through clouds--you can see the shapes of the clouds by the moonlight that they block.&quot; Slosar unveiled the map over the weekend at the American Physical Society meeting in Anaheim, Calif. The Sloan survey is an ambitious program that's mapping the Milky Way, finding extrasolar planets, and trying to solve the riddle of dark energy.This is merely the beginning. By 2014, around 140,000 quasars will help create a map 10 times larger than the current model based on observations from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS).What's the point of creating maps like these Space.com notes that &quot;the ultimate goal of such maps is to study how the expansion of the universe has changed during its history, which could shed light on the mysterious dark energy that seems to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Motorola's Xoom 3G contract may resemble iPad's]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=motorolas-xoom-3g-contract-may-resemble-ipads</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=motorolas-xoom-3g-contract-may-resemble-ipads</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 05 Feb 2011 08:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=motorolas-xoom-3g-contract-may-resemble-ipads</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The upcoming Motorola Xoomtablet may be offered with a 3G contract similar to that of theiPad. That is, if Verizon maintains the current tablet contract scheme it offers with Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Motorla's Xoom is one of the most highly anticipated tablets since the introduction of Apple's iPad early last year. The Xoom will be the first tablet to use Google's Android 3.0 operating system (&quot;Honeycomb&quot;), have front and rear-facing cameras, a dual-core Nvidia processor, and Google Talk with video chat, among other marquee features. Verizon offers the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet--which has integrated 3G capability--only one way: for full price ($499.99) with a month-to-month 3G contract. This makes the structure of the 3G contract more or less the same as the iPad's, which is also month-to-month.Will the Motorola Xoom follow suit That, of course, remains to be seen, but Verizon's across-the-board pricing strategy for tablets is currently to offer the tablet at full price with month-to-month 3G, according to documentation that can be obtained at Verizon stores. Verizon is already on the record, stating that the &quot;XOOM device will launch as a 3G/Wi-Fi-enabled device in Q1 2011 with an upgrade to 4G LTE in Q2.&quot; Verizon tablet 3G data pricing differs slightly from iPad pricing. The iPad offers a 2GB data plan for $25 a month, on a month-to-month basis. For tablets, Verizon currently offers a 1GB plan for $20 and a 3GB plan for $35. (Verizon also offers a 5GB plan for $50 a month and a 10GB plan for $80.) The full price of the Xoom is not known yet, though rumors have it ranging from $699 to about $799. The iPad 3G ranges from $629 to $829. There is also the possibility that Verizon will offer a two-year contract that would likely bring down the Xoom's price. One of the outstanding questions is whether the Xoom will be more of a 4G device, as Verizon's promotional materials seem to indicate. It is not clear at this point how a 4G data plan for a Verizon tablet would be structured. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Mystery of Google Street View's naked guy in trunk]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mystery-of-google-street-views-naked-guy-in-trunk</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mystery-of-google-street-views-naked-guy-in-trunk</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 20 Nov 2010 08:10:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mystery-of-google-street-views-naked-guy-in-trunk</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google Street View's German launch has truly been like no other.Germany is not like Brazil, where Street View seemed to unearth more dead bodies on sidewalks than can be seen in the whole repertoire of &quot;Law and Order.&quot;For Germany's bodies are alive with mystery. And no mystery can surely be greater than the one that appeared and has, at least temporarily, disappeared at Zwerchgasse 39 in Mannheim, Germany.(Credit:Google Street View)The image, which was captured by the German newspaper Der Spiegel, offers a story. The only question is: What storyIt seems to show a naked man getting out of the trunk of acar. A dog is lying in the driveway, either asleep or permanently with the angels. A broken umbrella seems to be lying near the dog.What could all this meanMy own view is that the greatest importance lies in what is in the yellow bottle near the car. Could it be cleaning fluid Might something suspicious have been inside the trunk of the car Might the man have been cleaning it out Might he have been cleaning out a dead body A dead body of a dog, perhapsIf it isn't cleaning fluid, what is it Might it have been used to poison the dog or at least to send it to sleep while its owner bravely removed a dead body from the trunk in the full joy of daylight The intrigue here seems endless. Might he not be naked at all There is a chance that somewhere in there resides some shorts about his person. Might he himself have been kidnapped and shoved in that trunk, with the assailants scarpering when they saw the might of the Street View car turn the corner On the other hand, could this all have been staged by another German with a sense of the absurd While almost 3 percent of Germans decided to blur out their properties on Street View, others, at least to my wicked sentiment, decided to have fun with the whole escapade. First, there was the tenant who happened to enjoy the same office building as Google in Munich. This tenant requested that the building should be blurred. Which meant that Google had to comply with blurring its own offices.Might this seemingly naked man in the trunk of a soft-top have a soft spot for amusing the world with an unsolvable tale of intrigueGoogle has removed this shot and says on the Street View site that it is &quot;under review.&quot;So one waits with cross-legged anticipation to find out whether something exciting, dangerous, or possibly even criminal might have been happening here. Or whether this was really just a (possibly) naked guy cleaning the junk in his trunk.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Windows Phone 7 app submissions open to all]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-app-submissions-open-to-all</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-app-submissions-open-to-all</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:11:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-app-submissions-open-to-all</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace upload dialog developers will see when submitting their apps. (Credit:Microsoft)What, you say--there are already some 1,400 applications available on Microsoft'sWindows Phone 7 Marketplace Well, yes there are. But up until now, not just anyone who wanted to put their app up for sale or free download could submit.That's no longer the case, as Microsoft has opened up the app submission process for any developer who has registered to publish apps on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace.The last-minute opening might see a little odd to outsiders considering Windows Phone 7 hardware is set to launch on Monday of next week in North America, and has already been available in Europe, Australia and Singapore since late-October. But prior to this move, Microsoft had opened up submissions to its preferred partners, as well as letting in chunks of developers. With this change, anyone can now submit their application, and get it up on the store in what Microsoft says is 3-5 business days, assuming it passes Microsoft's certification and content guidelines (pdf warning). Microsoft says it has put extra resources into getting some of these last-minute submissions through its testing and certification process in time for Monday's launch.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Urbanears' Plattan headphones get iPod remote]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=urbanears-plattan-headphones-get-ipod-remote</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=urbanears-plattan-headphones-get-ipod-remote</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=urbanears-plattan-headphones-get-ipod-remote</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Urbanears)Among headphone manufacturers, Urbanears can certainly count itself as one that creates some of the most stylish sets on the market. Unfortunately, the high-fashion look associated with the company's Medis and Plattan headphones came at the sacrifice of sound quality.While I don't expect much of an audio improvement from the Plattan Plus headphones,iPod andiPhone owners who place more emphasis on looks than function might be pleased with Urbanears' latest offering. The Plus 'phones keep the style of the Plattan and add an inline mic and playback controls for the ubiquitous Apple devices. Unlike many competing headsets, the module also contains a volume rocker.The Plattan Plus also features a durable, fabric-coated cable and something called the &quot;zound plug,&quot; which lets a friend plug into the headphones and share in the music. The price tag of $60 is actually quite reasonable given the style, features, and durability, so if you're not super picky about audio quality, these could be a decent option.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Chicken manure to help power U.K. homes]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chicken-manure-to-help-power-u-k--homes</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chicken-manure-to-help-power-u-k--homes</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 28 Oct 2010 07:10:33 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chicken-manure-to-help-power-u-k--homes</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Alfagy)The picturesque Cotswolds of England will soon be using those lovely animals dotting its hillsides to provide power to some of its homes.A turnkey biogas station made by Alfagy plans to convert agricultural waste, including both feedstock and manure, into electricity.The plant, which is scheduled to open November 1, is located on the southern outskirts of Cirencester, an ancient Cotswolds town famous for being a thriving mercantile city during the Roman Empire. But Alfagy says the station could reduce at least two of the area's current imports by using what its people have on hand.While there have been several projects over the years looking at cow manure as an energy source, this Alfagy plant will use the manure of smaller farm animals, as well as agricultural feedstock.Participating farmers will deliver corn, wheat, agricultural-plant waste, chicken litter, and pig manure to the station. The farmers will be paid for the biomass and also receive heat for their animal barns, grain-drying bins, and homes.The agricultural waste is converted into biogas in an anaerobic digester. The station will use a combined heat and power (CHP) system in which one 260-kilowatt CHP unit can perform at a 42.9 percent electrical efficiency, according to Alfagy.The station is expected to produce about 1 megawatt of electricity per year, enough to power about 350 Cotswolds homes (Cirencester's population is about 19,000). The station will also create digestate fertilizer.&quot;This 'digestate' is a powerful fertilizer that decreases the average fertilizer costs by up to 100 percent, which is a major cost to farmers and the environment. Normal fertilizer production uses large amounts of fossil fuel [and emits] significant quantities of carbon dioxide, and the finished product is transported over great distances to farmers. Whereas [if] the fertilizer is produced locally at the power plant, there is no necessity in importing it from the U.S.,&quot; Alfagy said in a statement.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple taps Unisys to reach businesses, government]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-taps-unisys-to-reach-businesses-government</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-taps-unisys-to-reach-businesses-government</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:10:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-taps-unisys-to-reach-businesses-government</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In a bid to capture more corporate and government customers, Apple is seeking help from IT services provider Unisys.In deal between the two companies, Unisys will offer maintenance and other services to businesses and government agencies that buy Apple devices, Gene Zapfel, a managing partner at Unisys, told Bloomberg. The contract was signed this month, Bloomberg reported yesterday, but so far no details have been revealed.Though its focus has traditionally been on consumers, schools, and creative professionals, Apple has found itself pulled more into the enterprise arena, especially as employees are bringing their iPhones to work.Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer touted enterprise adoption during Apple's earnings conference call last week. More than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies are &quot;deploying or piloting&quot; theiPhone, Oppenheimer said, and more than 65 percent of Fortune 100 firms are deploying or piloting iPads.TheMac itself has also been finding more of a home among companies, the beneficiary of demand for Apple's mobile devices. Apple recently grabbed a spot as the third-largest PC seller in the U.S. when consumer sales were a bit sluggish but enterprise sales did well, according to IDC. Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, also said during last week's earnings call that the Mac is getting pulled into the enterprise when people are given a choice.Unisys has already entered Apple's market by creating security apps for the iPhone. Its Unisys Perimeter Security app helps security workers track down intruders via video and facial recognition. A Unisys app designed for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security lets border patrols check the status of cameras and other border-crossing technology.As part of its new contract with Apple, Bloomberg reported, Unisys expects to build iPhone apps for other government agencies.In response to a query from CNET about the new deal, a Unisys representative noted the company's existing relationship with Apple but wouldn't provide details on the new deal.&quot;We can confirm that we do have an integrator relationship with Apple in the U.S. federal market. As a systems integrator, Unisys has relationships with many equipment providers, and we are pleased with the opportunity to be able to work with Apple,&quot; the Unisys representative said today. &quot;We also offer support for Apple iPhones and iPads on our ClearPath servers. As the Apple relationship is early, there aren't further details.&quot;Update at 9:50 a.m. PDT: Unisys' response added.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple leapfrogs RIM in Q3 smartphone sales]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-leapfrogs-rim-in-q3-smartphone-sales</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-leapfrogs-rim-in-q3-smartphone-sales</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:22:49 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-leapfrogs-rim-in-q3-smartphone-sales</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The iPhone had a record quarter, selling more smartphones than RIM for the first time, according to a new industry analyst report.(Credit:CNET)Apple CEO Steve Jobs proclaimed earlier this week that his company is leaving RIM in its dust, an now one industry analyst firm has stepped up to corroborate that.GigaOm noted a Strategy Analytics' report today saying that Apple overtook RIM during the third quarter, shipping 15.4 million smartphones compared to RIM's 12.3 million.Nokia, still the worldwide leader of smartphones, shipped 26.5 million devices. But it wasn't just Apple that improved: the entire smartphone market grew to 77 million units, 78 percent better than a year ago, the report states.Strategy Analytics' report echoes, but doesn't exactly match, the numbers Apple shared on its fiscal fourth quarter earnings call Monday. &quot;We sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter,&quot; Jobs told investors. &quot;It handily beat RIM's 12.1 million BlackBerrys sold for their most recent quarter. We've now passed RIM, and I don't see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future.&quot;The BlackBerry maker didn't appreciate Jobs' aggressive comments. Shortly after, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie posted a blog calling Apple's counting methods into question and accusing Jobs of only telling customers &quot;half&quot; the story.Balsillie pointed out that his company's quarter ended in August, while Apple's ended in September, a traditionally lucrative smartphone-selling period. Strategy Analytics' report also covers three months, but it's not clear which three months it's taking into account.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Fellowship recruits tech talent to transform city governments - Springwise]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fellowship-recruits-tech-talent-to-transform-city-governments---springwise</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fellowship-recruits-tech-talent-to-transform-city-governments---springwise</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Government</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fellowship-recruits-tech-talent-to-transform-city-governments---springwise</guid>
<description><![CDATA[We''ve already seen some compelling examples of the change that can be wrought in local governments through the deft application of new web technologies. Aiming to make such tech-enabled transformation more widespread, California-based Code for America is a nonpartisan effort to help the brightest minds of the current tech generation rebuild city governments across the U.S.Inspired in part by Teach for America, CFA works with city officials and leading web development talent to identify and develop web solutions that can then be shared and rolled out more broadly to cities across America. Toward that end, each year it plans to offer an 11-month fellowship to support select cutting-edge tech talent. Five cities have already been chosen for the project''s inaugural 2011 year: Boston, Boulder, D.C., Philadelphia and Seattle. Now, the project''s leaders are in the process of choosing the talent who will be charged with transforming those city governments. More than 350 people applied by the effort''s mid-August deadline' those who are ultimately selected will not only receive a USD 35,000 stipend, travel expenses and healthcare, but also the training and support to be positioned as a leader in business, public service or both. Fellows will be announced on Oct. 1. Web technologies have already transformed much of the commercial sector' now it''s time to upgrade local governments on a broad scale. Civic-minded innovators: one to emulate in your part of the world... (Related: Dutch city launches iPhone app for lodging civic complaints a4&quot; NYC challenges developers to create apps using city data a4&quot; In Boston, an iPhone app for civic complaints a4&quot; In San Francisco, civic complaints via Twitter a4&quot; Tagging repairs for local government.)Website: www.codeforamerica.orgContact: info@codeforamerica.orgSpotted by: San Jose Mercury News via Jim Stewart<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Do AOLa4a4s layoffs spell doom for quality journalism]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=do-aolâÂ€Â™s-layoffs-spell-doom-for-quality-journalism</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=do-aolâÂ€Â™s-layoffs-spell-doom-for-quality-journalism</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=do-aolâÂ€Â™s-layoffs-spell-doom-for-quality-journalism</guid>
<description><![CDATA[AOL eliminated approximately 900 jobs today, including 200 US employees in the media and tech group and 700 people in India.In a company memo that has leaked out to a number of news organizations, chief executive Tim Armstrong tries to paint the move as a positive and necessary step towards turning the company around, saying it will a4Asignificantly improve AOLa4a4s ability to focus on growth.a4 And despite the layoffs, Armstrong said AOL will be a a4Anet importer of journalists.a4 (Translation: We&amp;'re hiring more than we&amp;'re firing.) The layoffs also seem a little less severe than the 400 to 500 US layoffs that were reported yesterday.Still, there are reasons to be skeptical. Ita4a4s not just how many people got laid off but who. AOLa4a4s own senior vice president of news Jonathan Dube posted on Twitter that the layoffs included a4Adozens of the most talented journalists &amp;amp' product folks I know.a4 Wireda4a4s Sam Gustin, himself a former AOL employee, described it as a a4Abloodbatha4 and said the cuts included a number of veteran journalists, including PoliticsDailya4a4s Editor in Chief Melinda Henneberger.Why would AOL target some of its most experienced writers and editors while ita4a4s also hiring new people Most likely because experience is expensive. Ita4a4s cheaper to bring on young writers who ask for less money, are willing to crank out lots of blog posts, and will go along with AOLa4a4s aggressive new traffic strategy called a4Athe AOL Way.a4 (When Engadget Editor Paul J. Miller left the AOL-owned gadget blog last month, he pointed to the AOL Way as evidence that the company a4Ahas its heart in the wrong place.a4)Former AOL employees arena4a4t the only ones with doubts about what Armstrong claims is an a4Aenhanced focus on quality journalism.a4 New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller published a column today called a4AAll the Aggregation Thata4a4s Fit to Aggregatea4. While it was almost certainly written before the layoffs were announced, ita4a4s still relevant. Keller takes aim at The Huffington Post, which AOL recently acquired, and which will take a prominent role in the companya4a4s editorial structure. Kellera4a4s arguments are pretty familiar, but theya4a4re stated eloquently and amusingly:a4AAggregationa4 can mean smart people sharing their reading lists, plugging one another into the bounty of the information universe. It kind of describes what I do as an editor. But too often it amounts to taking words written by other people, packaging them on your own Web site and harvesting revenue that might otherwise be directed to the originators of the material. a4Last month, when AOL bought The Huffington Post for $315 million, it was portrayed as a sign that AOL is moving into the business of creating stuff a4&quot; what we used to call writing or reporting or journalism but we now call a4Acontent.a4 Buying an aggregator and calling it a content play is a little like a companya4a4s announcing plans to improve its cash position by hiring a counterfeiter.Naturally, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington has responded.Next Story: Instapaper 3.0 for iPhone/iPad brings social features, biggest update yet Previous Story: RadiumOne raises $21M for new ad network with a social twistPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: layoffsCompanies: aolPeople: Ariana Huffington, Bill Keller, Tim Armstrong          Tags: layoffsCompanies: aolPeople: Ariana Huffington, Bill Keller, Tim ArmstrongAnthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter. 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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<title><![CDATA[Why messaging app Kik just got $8M: &''It&'s so frickin&' fast&'']]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-messaging-app-kik-just-got-8m-8220itrsquos-so-frickinrsquo-fast8221</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-messaging-app-kik-just-got-8m-8220itrsquos-so-frickinrsquo-fast8221</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-messaging-app-kik-just-got-8m-8220itrsquos-so-frickinrsquo-fast8221</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Mobile chat application Kik has just raised $8 million in a first round of venture capital from RRE Ventures,Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures &amp;8212' thanks to its incredibly fast technology.Union Square Ventures&amp;' Fred Wilson, who joined the company&amp;'s board with the investment, said he put money into the company despite there being multiple competitors in the market because, as he put it to me this morning, the &amp;''product is fast, so frickin&amp;' fast, way faster than anything [on] the market &amp;8230' if you look at a list of ten things a Web app needs, it starts with speed.&amp;''Kik does have many formidable competitors. They includeBeluga, which was just acquired by Facebook'WhatsApp' HighNote' the richly funded GroupMe' andPingChat. Adding to the stress on Kik, RIM has kicked Kik off the BlackBerry platform, giving Kik a handicap for users who would like to chat with each other across mobile platforms. Meanwhile, RIM has reportedly begun steps to take its BlackBerry Messenger, previously a BlackBerry-only piece of software, to the Android and iPhone platforms, in what seems like a clear counterstrike against this fledgling startup.Aside from the app&amp;'s speed, Wilson said Kik&amp;'s team impressed him. Wilson said he has met with most of the management teams of the other applications and had decided that Kik&amp;'s team is the one to back. Kik founder Ted Livingston was a strategist at Blackberry Messenger before leaving that company two years ago to found Kik, and is now based in small offices in Waterloo just across the street from RIM. VentureBeat was the first to write about the company&amp;'s launch in October 2010, and we&amp;'ve since tracked Kik&amp;'s impressive growth.Indeed, Kik became such a threat to RIM&amp;'s own Blackberry Messenger product that RIM subsequently booted Kik off its app platform, initially citing a breach of contractual obligationsand later patent infringement. This theoretically gives RIM an edge, especially if it can quickly move BBM onto rival platforms. However, RIM still hasn&amp;'t released that support, and it&amp;'s still trying to figure out its pricing.Kik, meantime, is surging ahead without BlackBerry support. In preparation for the SXSW Interactive conference which kicks off later this week in Austin, Texas, Kik today released a new version for iOS, Apple&amp;'s iPhone and iPad operating system, and Google-powered Android devices. It features real-time group chat for up to ten people. Kik has also introduced picture sharing&amp;8211' an expected next step. Until now, it had kept things simple with just text.Wilson said BlackBerry Messenger will remain a powerful product for BlackBerry users, but for people who have moved away from those phones, they&amp;'ve done it for a reason &amp;8212' and thus are likely to consider competing apps such as Kik. He said there will likely to be three or four market leaders. As for Beluga, Wilson suggested Facebook&amp;'s acquisition may have killed its chances for a breakout: &amp;''All the things Facebook has bought to date have basically withered and died. I don&amp;'t know if Beluga will be any different.&amp;''Kik now has 3.41 million users. It grew quickly by scanning your address book and telling you which friends have already downloaded Kik. Earlier, it was particularly aggressive in this tactic, proposing even people who it thought were similar to folks in your address book, but it has since taken a more conservative approach.RRE&amp;'s Adam Ludwin also joined the company&amp;'s board. RRE recently hosted a meetup for startups looking to pitch at the just-wrapped DEMO Spring 2011 product-launch event.Next Story: Need storage Find it with SpareFoot a4&quot; which just raised $1.5M Previous Story: Sprint&amp;'s gadget plans: Nexus S 4G, EVO 3D phone, EVO View tabletPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: mobile chatCompanies: Kik, RIM, RRE Ventures, Spark Capital, Union Square VenturesPeople: Fred Wilson, Ted Livingston          Tags: mobile chatCompanies: Kik, RIM, RRE Ventures, Spark Capital, Union Square VenturesPeople: Fred Wilson, Ted LivingstonMatt Marshall is editor and CEO of VentureBeat. Follow him on Twitter at @mmarshall, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat. 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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<title><![CDATA[Where in the World Is Eduardo Saverin In Singapore Funding Facebook&nbsp'Games.]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=where-in-the-world-is-eduardo-saverin-in-singapore-funding-facebooknbspgames-</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=where-in-the-world-is-eduardo-saverin-in-singapore-funding-facebooknbspgames-</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=where-in-the-world-is-eduardo-saverin-in-singapore-funding-facebooknbspgames-</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I haven&amp;'t run into him, but have confirmed from at least ten local programmers and angel investors that Eduardo Saverin&amp;8211' the Brazilian-born estranged Facebook co-founder who helped Ben Mezrich write a devastating revenge book of his ouster before taking a settlement and disappearing from the face of the US tech scene&amp;8211' has been hiding out in Singapore for the better part of the last year-and-a-half. I&amp;'m told he lives in the penthouse of the tallest building of the city, and is a regular at Singapore&amp;'s club hot spots, especially a place called The Butter Factory.Rolling with the city&amp;'s socialites aside, locals say that Saverin is pretty low-key. No one I spoke with had ever heard him refer to himself as the &amp;''co-founder&amp;'' of Facebook. It either goes unsaid or, on one occassion, he told someone who&amp;'d never heard of him he was merely a &amp;''programmer of Facebook games.&amp;'' I don&amp;'t know how much coding he&amp;'s doing, but he&amp;'s reportedly using that Facebook settlement money to fund a variety of Facebook game developers from his perch in Singapore&amp;8211' a perch that happens to be just next door to Facebook&amp;'s second largest market, Indonesia. He may be hiding out from the limelight and attention, but he&amp;'s certainly not trying to get away from Facebook itself.By many accounts Saverin is well liked here and people are protective of him. In everyday conversation, people refer to Saverin&amp;'s role creating Facebook, not Mark Zuckerberg&amp;'s, which let&amp;'s just say, you don&amp;'t hear a lot in the Valley. One source did a deal with him and wanted to make sure I said he was &amp;''the most honorable guy I&amp;'ve ever dealt with in business.&amp;''Given TechCrunch&amp;'s experience with Singaporean businessmen, I could make a catty comment about that being a low bar. But I&amp;'ve met a lot of honorable people this week in Singapore, and it seems like Saverin is keeping his head down, trying to build something on his own and avoid the film limelight his tell all account helped create. I give him credit for that. It&amp;'ll exciting to see what games he winds up funding for the platform that seems to have caused him a lot of pain and made him a billionaire household name. With any luck, a4shis games will do well enough that Aaron Sorkin can fictionalize a sequel.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Deals &038' More: Cloudpic gets $6M to bring global artists together, RootMusic raises $2.3M to help musicians reach new fans]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=deals-038-more-cloudpic-gets-6m-to-bring-global-artists-together-rootmusic-raises-2-3m-to-help-musicians-reach-new-fans</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=deals-038-more-cloudpic-gets-6m-to-bring-global-artists-together-rootmusic-raises-2-3m-to-help-musicians-reach-new-fans</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=deals-038-more-cloudpic-gets-6m-to-bring-global-artists-together-rootmusic-raises-2-3m-to-help-musicians-reach-new-fans</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Today&amp;'s funding announcements include ways for artists to produce content and engage fans online:Cloudpic grabs $6M to help artists collaborate from anywhere: Thecompany has raised funding from Gobi Partners and EDBI Investments to bring its cloud-based software for the digital entertainment industry to market in Asia, peHUB reports. Co-founded by an ex-Dreamworks Animation exec, the company, which has offices in the United States and Singapore, allows artists, producers and investors to join forces through virtual studios and produce content from all around the world.RootMusic scores $2.3M to increase musicians&amp;' online presence: The San Francisco-based startup has raised new equity and debt financing for BandPage, its music and entertainment app on Facebook, according to a filing with the SEC. Founded in late 2009, the company makes it simple for artists to create high-quality Facebook pages to promote their work online.33Across brings in $9M to help marketers find new customers: The New York-based company has raised a second round of funding led by Flybridge Capital Partners with participation from First Round Capital and QED Investors. The firm, whose name is a reference to crossword puzzles, has developed a social targeting platform to help clients like eBay and Gilt Groupe identify potential new customers using social graph data.TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals gets $23M to treat diseases: The Malvern, Penn.-based company has closed a second tranche of its third funding round, the company announced today. Backed by Clarus Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners, Pfizer Ventures and others, the biopharmaceutical company is developing small molecule drugs to destroy cancer cells and treat debilitatingdiseases.Next Story: On the GreenBeat: Sierra Club sues over solar plant, LDK Solar takes $33 million stake in Solar Power Previous Story: Offermatic muscles into the group-buying bonanza with virtual couponsPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Companies: 33Across, Clarus Ventures, Cloudpic, Dreamworks Animation, eBay, EDBI Investments, Facebook, First Round Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Gilt Groupe, Gobi Partners, Hatteras Venture Partners, Pfizer Ventures, QED Investors, RootMusic, TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals          Companies: 33Across, Clarus Ventures, Cloudpic, Dreamworks Animation, eBay, EDBI Investments, Facebook, First Round Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Gilt Groupe, Gobi Partners, Hatteras Venture Partners, Pfizer Ventures, QED Investors, RootMusic, TetraLogic PharmaceuticalsVentureBeat 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[Game companies raise record $1.05B in 2010, up 58 percent]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=game-companies-raise-record-1-05b-in-2010-up-58-percent</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=game-companies-raise-record-1-05b-in-2010-up-58-percent</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=game-companies-raise-record-1-05b-in-2010-up-58-percent</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Game fundings broke a record this year as 91 companies raised more than $1.05 billion in 2010. That number is up 58 percent from a year ago, based on VentureBeat&amp;'s own research.We found that 115 game companies raised a total of $663.1 million in 2009. And in 2008, 112 game companies raised $936.8 million. That means that venture capital funding for games has never been bigger.That&amp;'s a big change from years ago, when venture capitalists were afraid to invest in games because they were a lot like Hollywood movies, where it was too hard to pick the hits. But the big trend that continues to drive the investments is the theme of disruption. The traditional game business is being disrupted by the popularity of social games on social networks like Facebook.Major VC firms such as Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp;amp' Byers, Andreessen Horowitz, and others all put their money behind game companies this year. Private equity firms such as Providence Private Equity Partners and Temasek Holdings also dove into the biggest deals. John Doerr (pictured right) of Kleiner Perkins, the &amp;''Michael Jordan of venture capital,&amp;'' even said that his company&amp;'s investment in Zynga was its best ever.Mobile gaming is coming into its own as a major platform for games. With Rovio&amp;'s Angry Birds, the iPhone has now had its first major mega-hit. It&amp;'s still not anywhere near as big as Call of Duty Black Ops, the blockbuster combat game that generated $1 billion in six weeks. But the numbers of downloads &amp;8212' more than 50 million to date &amp;8212' is becoming impressive.And digital distribution is disrupting traditional game retailers as new players come in with Netflix-style businesses. New business models such as virtual goods are also giving users the option of playing for free until they find something in a game that they want to purchase.In each of these categories, there are now entrenched leaders. Zynga&amp;'s $150 million raise from SoftBank builds on its $180 million in venture capital raised last year. It will be hard to fund social game startups that can compete effectively with Zynga. But companies are still trying.Investors and startups alike are no doubt inspired by the big transactions that have taken place, such as Disney&amp;'s $763.2 million purchase of Playdom and DeNA&amp;'s $403 million purchase of Ngmoco (the Ngmoco celebration is pictured above). Those prices are fueling a Gold Rush mentality.We&amp;'ve chronicled the Gold Rush religiously ourselves but have also pulled data for these fundings from the internet at large, the EngageDigital site, and the National Venture Capital Association.These fundings mean lots of innovation ahead and continued employment  for game industry veterans. As we noted before, not all of these companies will last. But  the successful ones will create revenues, profits and jobs in the years  ahead.Wea4a4ve ranked them here in order of the amount of money raised,  and Ia4a4ve linked to our coverage. Fundings where the amounts  werena4a4t made public are listed at the end. If youa4a4ve heard of others,  please note in the comments and wea4a4ll add them to the list. The list includes  companies that raised funds in prior years but disclosed for the first  time in 2010. Ita4a4s likely that some companies from last yeara4a4s list or  this yeara4a4s have gone out of business. If so, let us know in the  comments.Once again, we acknowledge our method is imperfect. As was the case last year, we  have lots of deals where we dona4a4t know the exact amount raised (we  have listed them alphabetically at the end). We know that Mentez raised a  substantial round, but the exact amount wasna4a4t disclosed, and so it is  not included in our figure for 2010. And one of the big mysteries was the rumor that Google had invested $100 &amp;8211' $200 million in Zynga' but the two companies never announced the deal, leading some to believe that it wasn&amp;'t finalized. We expect that wea4a4ll be revising  the list upward in the coming weeks as we add more deals that we didna4a4t know about.1. ZeniMax Media &amp;8212' $150M for acquiring high-quality game studios. A scene from Rage, a new game coming from id Software, a subsidiary of ZeniMax, is pictured at top. Investors: Providence Private Equity Partners.2. Zynga &amp;8212' $150M for social game business in Japan. Investors: SoftBank.3. Gazillion &amp;8212' $60M for massively multiplayer online games such as Marvel Universe. Investors: Temasek Holdings.4. OnLive &amp;8211' $60M in two rounds for games-on-demand online gaming service. Investors: British Telecommunications and Belgacom Group.5. GameHI &amp;8212' $59M online games for Korean market. Investor: Nexon.6. Playdom &amp;8212' $33M for social game publisher. (Later bought by Disney for $763.2M' Playdom CEO John Pleasants pictured right). Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, Disneya4a4s Steamboat Ventures, and New World Ventures.7. Vostu &amp;8211' $30M for social game publisher focused on the Brazilian market. Investors: Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management.8. Ngmoco &amp;8212' $25M for iPhones games. Investors: Institutional Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Norwest Venture Partners, and Maples Investments.9. Booyah &amp;8212' $20M for location-based social gaming company. Investors: Accel Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp;amp' Byers, and DAG Ventures.10. Foursquare &amp;8212' $20M for location-based entertainment. Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and O&amp;'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. (Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, pictured right).11. Mindjolt &amp;8212' $20M for social gaming company. In this deal, MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe raised funding to purchase MindJolt. Investors: Austin Ventures.12. Red 5 Studios &amp;8212' $20M for online game developer. Investor: The9.13. Vindicia &amp;8212' $20M for online payments system for merchants who sell virtual goods in games. Investors: Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, DCM, FTV Capital and Onset Ventures.14. PlaySpan &amp;8212' $18M for virtual goods and monetization platform. Investors: Vodafone Ventures and SoftBank Bodhi Fund.15. 6waves &amp;8211' $17.5M for Facebook games. Investors: Insight Venture Partners.16. Flurry &amp;8212' $15M for mobile analytics and social recommendation engine company. Investors: Menlo Ventures, Draper Fisher  Jurvetson, InterWest, First Round Capital and Union Square Ventures.17. Zong &amp;8212' $15M for mobile payments. Investors: Matrix Partners.18. hi5 &amp;8212' $14M for game-focused social network and social game platform. Investors: Crosslink Capita and Mohr Davidow Ventures.19. Glu Mobile &amp;8212' $13M in private placement for smartphone games. Investors: Greenway Capital, Cannell  Capital, Cypress Capital, Granite Global  Ventures, New Enterprise  Associates, Scale Venture Partners and  Stephens Investment Management.20. Tonchidot &amp;8212' $12M for mobile augmented reality platform. Investors: KDDI Corp., Recruit Co. and SPiRE.21. DreamBox Learning &amp;8212' $10M for education game startup. Investors: Reed Hastings and the Charter Fund.22. Gaikai &amp;8212' $10M for cloud-based game streaming. Investors: Rustic Canyon Partners, Benchmark Capital, Triplepoint Capital.23. in3Depth Systems &amp;8212' $10M for gesture-control systems. Parent company for both  Softkinetic and Optrima. Investors: Belgacom, Hunza Ventures, and SRIW  Techno.24. InnoGames &amp;8212' $10M or more for browser-based games such as Tribal Wars. Investors: Fidelity Growth Partners Europe.25. Major League Gaming &amp;8212' $10M for online tournament gaming. Investors: Legion Enterprises and Oak Investment Partners.26. OMGPOP &amp;8212' up to $10M for social games. Investors: unspecified (round in progress).27. RockYou &amp;8211' $10M for social games and ad network. Investors: SoftBank.28. World Golf Tour &amp;8211' $10M for social games focused on golfing. Investors: JAFCO Ventures29. Machinima &amp;8212' $9M for web site that hosts videos made from game animation technology. Investors: Redpoint Ventures and MK Capital.30. Sifteo &amp;8212' $9M for table-top gaming with plastic tiles. Investors: Foundry Group and True Ventures.31. Aurora Feint/OpenFeint &amp;8212' $8M for social game platform Investors: Intel and The9.32. mig33 &amp;8212' $8.9M for social mobile games platform. Investors: Gree and Indonesian telecom entrepreneur Pak Sugiono Wiyono Sugialam, Accel partners, Redpoint Ventures and DCM.33. Runic Games &amp;8212' $8.4M for developer of Diablo-style dungeon crawler games. Investor: Perfect World Entertainment.34. Image Metrics &amp;8211' $8M for facial animation tools for games. Investors: Reverse merger with International Cellular Accessories.35. LucidLogix &amp;8212' $8M for game-focused graphics chips. Investors: Rho Ventures, Giza Venture Capital, and Genesis Partners.36. Qualtr &amp;8211' $8M for gyroscope chips for motion sensors in game consoles and gadgets. Investors: Matrix  Partners and Pilot House Ventures.37. UltiZen &amp;8212' $8M for game development outsourcing. Investors: JAFCO Asia, Hotung Investment Holdings, and Tokio Marine Investment Services.38. Vivox &amp;8212' $6.8M for voice chat for games (pictured right). Investors: IDG Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Canaan Partners, and GrandBanks Capital.39. Moonshoot &amp;8212' $6.6M for games that teach kids English. Investors: Alsop Louie Partners and TL Ventures.40. Glyde &amp;8212' $6M for used game online sales. (raised in previous years). Investor: Charles River Ventures.41. PlayFirst &amp;8212' $5.2M for casual games such as Diner Dash on multiple platforms. Investors: Mayfield Fund, Trinity Partners, DCM, Rustic Canyon Ventures, and $4  million in debt financing by Comerica Bank.42. BigDoor Media &amp;8211' $5M for white-label virtual goods systems, or gamification, for publishers. Investors: Foundry Group.43. Gaikai &amp;8212' $5M for cloud-based game streaming service. Investors: Benchmark Capital.44. MetroGames &amp;8212' $5M for social game company in Argentina. Investor: Playdom.45. Pocket Gems &amp;8212' $5M for iPhone and mobile games. Investors: Sequoia Capital, Michael Dearing, Jeff Fluhr, and Omar Hamoui.46. Turbulenz &amp;8211' $5M for browser-based online game platform. Investors: unspecified.47. Tiny Speck &amp;8212' $5M for social games such as Glitch. Amount raised in 2009, revealed  in 2010. Investors: Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and angel  investors.48. Zattikka &amp;8212' $5M for mobile and social games. Investors: Notion Capital, Harald Ludwig and others.49. Avatar Reality &amp;8212' $4.2M for Blue Mars virtual world. Investors: Henk Rogers and Kolohala Ventures.50. Open Sports Network &amp;8212' $4M for sports fantasy games. Investors: unspecified.51. GameGround &amp;8212' $3.5M for gamers social network. Investors: Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Capital, Vodafone Ventures, and Novel TMT Ventures.52. JNJ Mobile/MocoSpace &amp;8212' $3.5M for mobile social game platform. Investors: SoftBank Capital and General Catalyst.53. Rocket Ninja &amp;8212' $3.5M for 3D browser-based social games. Investors: unspecified angels.54. Monumental Games &amp;8212' $3.2M for technology for virtual worlds and online games. Investors: Maven Capital Partners.55. NeoEdge &amp;8212' $3M for game ad platform. Investors: MMV Financial.56. Ngmoco &amp;8212' $3M to $5M for mobile game publisher. Investors: Google.57. Heyzap &amp;8212' $3M for social game platform for indie developers. Investors: Union Square Ventures, entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Chris Dixon from Founder Collective.58. Woozworld &amp;8212' $3M for virtual world for tweens. Investors: Inovia Capital and ID Capital.59. Sparkplay Media &amp;8212' $2.8M for massively multiplayer online games. Investors: Redpoint Ventures and Prism VentureWorks. (Company shut down).60. Badgeville &amp;8212' $2.5M for white-label platform for publishers to integrate social rewards into their web sites. A gamification company. Investors: Felix Investments, andsenior executives from eBay, PayPal, Chegg, Shopping.com, Drugstore.com, Palantir, and Warner Music.61. Quick Hit &amp;8212' $2.5M for online sports games. Investors: Valhalla Partners, Triplepoint Capital, and New Enterprise Associates.62. Secret Builders &amp;8212' $2.3M for educational virtual world and casual games (pictured right). Investors: The Entrepreneurs Fund, Michael Tanne, David Jeseke, Sheila Marcelo, Carl Page, John Welch, Sohaib Abbasi, Scott Hassan, Carlos Cashman, and Ken Morse.63. DNA Games &amp;8212' $2M for Flash games such as Casino City. Investors: Battery Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures.64. Hangout Industries &amp;8212' $2M for Facebook social games such as Fashion City. Investors: unspecified.65. Social Gaming Network &amp;8212' $2M for iPhone games. Investors: Tomorrow Ventures and Lars Hinrichs.66. SupersonicAds &amp;8212' $2M for virtual goods platform and monetization service. Investors: Michael van Swaaij.67. Vivox &amp;8212' $2M for game voice chat. Investors: Peacock Equity, Benchmark Capital, Canaan Partners, GrandBanks Capital and IDG Ventures.68. Camelot Media Investments/StudioEX &amp;8211' $1.9M for Facebook games. Investors: unspecified.69. Lionside &amp;8212' $1.6M for social sports games. Investors: unspecified.70. BringIt &amp;8212' $1.5M for tournament social game platform. Investors: Blumberg Capital, Seraph Group and ErGo Media Capital.71. Social Game Universe &amp;8212' $1.5M for game-like cross-promotion bar for Facebook games (pictured right). Investors: Michael Cohl, Ron Demo, Howard Gorman, Bruce Hooey, Gary Slaight, Clive Smith, and Moses Znaimer.72. Kontagent &amp;8212' $1.5M for Facebook analytics tools. Investors: fbFund, Jameson Hsu, James Hong, Benjamin Sun, Auren Hoffman, Greg Thomson, and Mike Sego.73. Rixty &amp;8211' $1.24M for alternative payment cards for games. Investors: Javelin Venture Partners, Accelerator Ventures, First Round Capital, Freestyle Capital, Nueva Ventures, and Soft Tech VC.74. Appitalism &amp;8212' $1M for social discovery community for getting apps noticed. Investors: Mobile Streams.75. Gendai Games (GameSalad) &amp;8212' $1M for game creation tool for iPhone, GameSalad. Investors: DFJ Mercury, Steamboat Ventures, DFJ Frontier, and ff Asset management. Angel investors include Paul Bricault, Paige Craig, Tom McInerney, Josh Resnick and Mark Suster.76. Moblyng &amp;8212' $1M for cross-platform game technology. Investors: unspecified.77. Titan Gaming &amp;8212' $1M for white-label tournament platform. Investors: William Quigley, Jill Armstrong, Brock Pierce, Michael Robertson, Kamran Pourzanjani, Carlos Bhola, Eric Pulier, Jeffrey Tinsley, Adam Walker, Andrew Frame, John Lee, Andy  Mazzarella, Scott Walker, and SAM Venture Partners.78. Exponential Entertainment &amp;8211' $700,000 (plus $1M in debt) for Hollywood-focused social games. (The company won our first GamesBeat Who&amp;'s Got Game contest &amp;8212' pictured at right.) Investors: Band of Angels and other angels.79. MiniMonos &amp;8212' $550,000 for New Zealand company creating kids virtual world. Investors: Venture Accelerator Nelson and New Zealand government&amp;'s Seed Co-Investment Fund.80. Beyond Gaming &amp;8211' $232,000 for socializing console gaming with online tournaments. Investors: Rocket Ventures and others.81. Gamify &amp;8212' $193,000 for gamification. Investors: Dan Dodge, Ron Williams and Dean Gebert.82. Ayeah Games &amp;8212' unspecified seed funding for social reality games. Investors: John Landry, Janpieter Scheerder and others.83. BoomBang Games &amp;8212' unspecified funding for Spanish Flash game developer. Investors: Nexon.84. Double Fusion &amp;8212' unspecified funding for in-game advertising company. Investors: Jerusalem Venture Partners.85. Drimmi &amp;8212' millions for social games. Investors: Mangrove Capital Partners and ABRT Venture Fund.86. Flutter &amp;8211' unspecified funding in 2009 for social game studio for games with alternative themes. Investors: Natural History New Zealand.87. Gaikai &amp;8212' unspecified funding for cloud-based game streaming service. Investors: Intel Capital and Limelight Networks.88. iActionable &amp;8212' unspecified seed funding for gamification startup. Investors: unspecified.89. Mentez &amp;8212' unspecified large round of funding for social games in Latin American and Brazilian markets. Investors: Insight Venture Partners.90. Summerlight &amp;8212' unspecified funding for social games played on web site. Investors: unspecified.91. Virgin Games &amp;8212' unspecified funding for tournament games. Richard Branson, the billionaire CEO of Virgin Group, announced the company at E3 (pictured above). Investors: Virgin Group.Next Story: Most augmented reality companies not doing augmented reality Previous Story: 5 ways an Internet sales tax will impact your businessPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: casual games, game fundings, social games, video gamesCompanies: Gazillion, OnLive, ZeniMax, ZyngaPeople: John Doerr          Tags: casual games, game fundings, social games, video gamesCompanies: Gazillion, OnLive, ZeniMax, ZyngaPeople: John DoerrDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.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[Call of Duty Black Ops map pack hits Xbox Live on Feb. 1]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=call-of-duty-black-ops-map-pack-hits-xbox-live-on-feb--1</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=call-of-duty-black-ops-map-pack-hits-xbox-live-on-feb--1</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=call-of-duty-black-ops-map-pack-hits-xbox-live-on-feb--1</guid>
<description><![CDATA[There&amp;'s no Peace on Earth for this holiday season for hardcore gamers who are busy playing the multiplayer version of the Call of Duty Black Ops combat game. And the online warfare will get a boost come Feb. 1 when the first Black Ops map pack will debut on Xbox Live.The first map pack for Black Ops &amp;8212' which in its first five days of sales generated $650 million in revenue for publisher Activision Blizzard &amp;8212' will debut as a time exclusive on Microsoft&amp;'s online gaming service, meaning it will be available only on Xbox Live for a month or so, according to the Major Nelson podcast, which is the official voice for Microsoft&amp;'s game business.Spouses of gamers may care about this so they can plan their solo vacations and make sure they don&amp;'t plan any romantic holidays around Feb. 1. But the game industry will also care because Call of Duty map packs &amp;8212' sold for $14.99 as downloadable content &amp;8212' generate as much revenue as major blockbuster games. On top of that, they consume the time of hardcore gamers as they extend the value of online play with new multiplayer arenas. A year ago, the two map packs for the previous Call of Duty game, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, sold more than 20 million units. That generated roughly $300 million in sales for Activision Blizzard.The First Strike maps will include four settings: Discovery, in the Antarctic research station that is a scene in the game' Kowloon, set on the rooftops of the district of Hong Kong' Berlin Wall, featuring a firefight at Checkpoint Charlie, where the Americans and Russians squared off' and Stadium, set in an American hockey rink. It also includes a Zombie map dubbed Ascension.Clearly, Activision Blizzard planned this map pack in advance. Last year, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 sold more than 20 million units. But the first map pack for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 wasn&amp;'t ready until March 30, or 4.5 months after the first game debuted. That may have had something to do with the turmoil at Infinity Ward, which imploded into litigation during the spring.This time, Activision Blizzard is debuting the first map pack for Black Ops just 84 days after the debut of the game itself. That&amp;'s smart, as it leaves very little opening for rivals such as Electronic Arts, which makes the Medal of Honor and Battlefield combat games.I think it&amp;'s going to be harder to lure away gamers from Black Ops than it was last year. I&amp;'ve hit level 45 out of 50 on multiplayer. I like the capabilities I get as a Major General, and so far I&amp;'m not getting bored with the game play or the maps.Previous Story: Online ad sales eclipse newspaper advertising in 2010PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Call of Duty Black Ops, Call of Duty Black Ops map pack, First Strike, map packCompanies: Activision Blizzard, Electronic ArtsPeople: Larry Hyrb, Major Nelson          Tags: Call of Duty Black Ops, Call of Duty Black Ops map pack, First Strike, map packCompanies: Activision Blizzard, Electronic ArtsPeople: Larry Hyrb, Major NelsonDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.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[PayPal Beats Google Checkout To The Local Payments Market But Will It Work&nbsp'(TCTV)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paypal-beats-google-checkout-to-the-local-payments-market-but-will-it-worknbsptctv</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paypal-beats-google-checkout-to-the-local-payments-market-but-will-it-worknbsptctv</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paypal-beats-google-checkout-to-the-local-payments-market-but-will-it-worknbsptctv</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In conjunction with the company&amp;'s developer conference, PayPal announced a slew of news and product releases this week, including a new micropayments product and an apps platform for businesses. But tucked away in a release was another piece of news from PayPal that could be huge. PayPal just released a new version of its popular iPhone app that allows users to find businesses near their immediate location that accept PayPal as a form of payment. Launching in San Francisco initially, the feature encourages merchants to attract nearby customers to their stores by posting deals and promotions to the app as an incentive for customers to visit their businesses. Customers can search by category and location, and find and select stores, services, or special offers. Users can pick up the goods or services in person, but pay the merchant using their PayPal app. Users can also use tags from Bling Nation, a startup that has partnered with PayPal to use the startup&amp;'s mobile payment chips to deduct funds from a PayPal account.One of the big selling points around using PayPal for merchants is the ability to offer deals as an incentive to drive buyers to a store or restaurant. Whether it be Groupon-like daily deals or just ordinary coupons, there&amp;'s no doubt that deals do help drive online to offline sales. PayPal President Scott Thompson tells TechCrunch (see video below) that eventually this local feature will have &amp;''ubiquity,&amp;'' meaning you&amp;'ll be able to access these merchant listings and pay with PayPal wherever you are in the world. Local is one of the key parts of PayPal&amp;'s future strategy, says Thompson. He&amp;'s confident that has the world becomes more connected, eventually all local merchants will accept PayPal as a payments option for in-store purchases. For PayPal, local payments certainly makes sense. Online to offline sales is a big part of local commerce, and if PayPal can become a payments mechanism in the local market, it could be pay off in revenue for the company. One competitor worth noting in the local payments space is Google Checkout. While Google Checkout doesn&amp;'t have as extensive of a reach as PayPal, Google Checkout has an ace in the hole when it comes to Google Places. Google Places allows local businesses to claim and edit a page, post realtime updates (eg, a4Ahappy hour tonighta4), post reviews, create a custom QR code, and even offer coupons. And Google indexes and highlights these pages in search results, most recently launching a more integrated placement of Places page within Google search.  Google could easily turn on a transaction (such as a daily deal) for these merchants, and use GoogleCheckout as the payments mechanism. The same experience could extend to mobile phones. The advantage Google has over PayPal is that with Places, these relationships with local merchants are already built into the search giants business. At last count a few months ago, Google had Places pages in place for over 4 million businesses but I&amp;'m sure this number is higher. PayPal on the other hand will have to forge new relationships with all these local businesses to get them on board with their payments platform. Not only do they have to find the businesses, but PayPal has to teach them how to use their mobile apps as a payment mechanism. Scaling PayPal&amp;'s local feature will be a huge endeavor for the company, which is why PayPal is testing the feature out in a limited market in the San Francisco.This why it makes sense for PayPal to form partnerships on its local endeavor. Google is an unlikely partner considering that the company already has its own payments platform. Facebook Places could be a potential partner (PayPal is already a micropayments partner for the social network&amp;'s virtual currency platform Credits). Facebook is rumored to be turning on a deals feature for Places and PayPal could be a way to process these payments. And Groupon is rumored to be brokering a payments deal with PayPal as well. So while Google Checkout still doesn&amp;'t have the sort of users numbers that PayPal does in the payments area, Google has much more in the war chest in terms of local. With local up for grabs, the battle between the two payments platform just got a whole lot more interesting. CrunchBase InformationPayPalGoogleInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Why startup Coda thinks it can compete against Big Auto]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-startup-coda-thinks-it-can-compete-against-big-auto</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-startup-coda-thinks-it-can-compete-against-big-auto</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-startup-coda-thinks-it-can-compete-against-big-auto</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I just spoke to electric car startup Coda&amp;'s interim CEO Steven &amp;''Mac&amp;'' Heller, who is stepping in since former chief executive Kevin Czinger stepped down. Heller talked to us from Los Angeles Auto Show, where Coda is showing off its all-electric sedan &amp;8212' and where automotive titans like Toyota and Honda have also unveiled their electric cars.So Coda has a lot of competition from major automakers, and is competing as an underdog given that it&amp;'s not yet a well-known brand name and is selling its car at $45,000 before state and federal incentives &amp;8212' more than what other soon-to-be-released electric cars are charging. Some analysts have been skeptical of Coda&amp;'s success.But Heller said he&amp;'s not worried that the company&amp;'s sedan will be coming out later than its competitors. The delays were put in to make &amp;''triple-sure&amp;'' on quality control, he said.&amp;''We believe Coda demand will exceed supply for the next period of time, which is also true broadly for pure EVs (electric vehicles) onthe market,&amp;'' Heller said.Indeed, the Leaf has 20,000 reservations and analysts have told VentureBeat that Coda is likely to benefit from overflow demand.And the company is intentionally departing from some of the tactics in Big Auto. Heller points out that the company has designed an experience completely different from what consumers are used &amp;8212' and dislike &amp;8212' at dealerships, in particular the haggling that comes when trying to negotiate price. Coda plans to launch stores in high-traffic malls where customers can learn about the cars and electric vehicles in a relaxed, no-pressure sales environment.&amp;''Our consumers in our market, which is right now California, understand that there&amp;'s a difference between an all-electric car and an all-electric car company versus &amp;8230'a company whose history, heart, soul and present remainswedded to gasoline and the internal combustion engine,&amp;'' Heller said. &amp;''We think the brand has been created by the (electric car) movement and people understand completely what our values are.&amp;''Initially, it looked like Coda would be set up to compete this December against Nissan&amp;'s all-electric Leaf and Chevrolet&amp;'s plug-in electric hybrid the Volt. But the company is delaying the car until second half of 2011, and the Nissan Leaf is suffering delays as well, though it will deliver just five cars in December. Coda&amp;'s sedan will now instead be coming out around the same time as the Ford Focus Electric &amp;8212' yet another major automaker&amp;'s electric car release.Coda has planned to sell 14,000 cars in its first year in production, about 40 to 50 percent of which it plans to go to fleets, but Heller said they&amp;'re remaining flexible on how the company will ramp up to that in monthly sales targets.The company is also in the process of raising another $125 million before it commences with an IPO.Next Story: Deal of the day LivingSocial could be raising $100M from Amazon.com Previous Story: Chevrolet will invest $40 million to offset carbon emissionsPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Chevrolet Volt, Coda sedan, electric cars, electric vehicles, Ford Focus Electric, Nissan LeafCompanies: Chevrolet, Coda, Honda, Nissan, ToyotaPeople: Kevin Czinger, Steven Heller          Tags: Chevrolet Volt, Coda sedan, electric cars, electric vehicles, Ford Focus Electric, Nissan LeafCompanies: Chevrolet, Coda, Honda, Nissan, ToyotaPeople: Kevin Czinger, Steven HellerIris 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).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[Maker Of Energy Efficient Air Conditioners, Coolerado, Closes $7.2&nbsp'Million]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=maker-of-energy-efficient-air-conditioners-coolerado-closes-7-2nbspmillion</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=maker-of-energy-efficient-air-conditioners-coolerado-closes-7-2nbspmillion</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=maker-of-energy-efficient-air-conditioners-coolerado-closes-7-2nbspmillion</guid>
<description><![CDATA[According to a new SEC filing, Cooleradoa4&quot;&amp;nbsp'the Denver-based manufacturer of super energy-efficient air conditioning systems for residential and light commercial usea4&quot; has closed a $7.2 million investment led by NewWorld Capital Group, and joined by Spring Mountain Capital. The relationship between the clean tech investors and Coolerado was announced in October, without any dollar amounts confirmed. Both funding organizations are based in New York.  Coolerado is targeting $4.1 million more for the round, the filing says. Founded in 2004, Coolerado designs, makes and sells patented, energy-efficient air conditioning systems that the company claims can save buyers up to 90% in electricity costs affiliated with air conditioning. Coolerado coolers, in contrast to traditional air conditioners, do not re-circulate air, nor do they use chemical refrigerants or compressors. Coolerado air conditioners (as described in this demo video) instead use thermodynamics, and water as a fuel for cooling. Some Coolerado units can run on solar power. The company has sold its technology to customers in 21 countries already. Amusingly, its website is run on solar power from data centers that are cooled by Coolerado units. With this round of funding, NewWorld Capital appointed three directors to the company&amp;'s five-person board: Bradley Abelow, Carter Bales and Ali Iz. CrunchBase InformationNewWorld Capital Group LLCCooleradoInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Swedish dairy uses tracking numbers as a 'still-made-here' marketing tool - Springwise]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=swedish-dairy-uses-tracking-numbers-as-a-still-made-here-marketing-tool---springwise</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=swedish-dairy-uses-tracking-numbers-as-a-still-made-here-marketing-tool---springwise</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Food</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=swedish-dairy-uses-tracking-numbers-as-a-still-made-here-marketing-tool---springwise</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This is the third in a series of posts on traceability. Written by Springwise, and supported by IBM. Check out our previous posts on a registration service for product recalls and on supermarkets offering increased food traceability, or read more about building a smarter planet._________Sknemejerier is a relatively small diary producer based in southern Sweden. It has a long local history and was always able to operate without much competition. That changed a few years ago, when a larger, national diary producer set its eye on southern Sweden, pricing its products aggressively to capture market share. In response, Sknemejeriet is trying to revive its relationship with its customers by stressing its local roots and connections to the community. To that end, it created a web page and an iPhone app' both allow customers to enter numbers from a milk carton''s date stamp to learn about the local farmer who produced the milk.The numerical code used to relay information to consumers is the standard tracking stamp that the company already used. So for the cost of building an iPhone app and a online application, the company is able to give customers that still-made-here feeling, helping it compete with larger national brands. One to apply to your own (local) food or beverage businessWebsite: www.skanemejerier.se/sv/Mjolkgardar/Bonden-bakom-mjolken-i-mobilen/Contact: www.skanemejerier.se/sv/Kontakta-oss/Spotted by: Liobov Triufanova<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[IssueBurner: Finally, task and issue tracking with email]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=issueburner-finally-task-and-issue-tracking-with-email</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=issueburner-finally-task-and-issue-tracking-with-email</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=issueburner-finally-task-and-issue-tracking-with-email</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Raise  your hand if you could stand to be better about task tracking. Keep  your hand raised if you rely on email entirely to manage your tasks.  IssueBurner, a service developed by the data-management company Webyog,  aims to bridge that divide by letting you use emails to easily track  tasks, issues, and anything else you need to follow-up.Using  the service is easy: Simply add a4Aissue@issueburner.coma4 as a recipient  to any email where youa4a4re asking someone to do something. The issue is then added to both of your IssueBurner task lists, and you can  collaborate on it until its resolved. If your colleague isna4a4t already on  IssueBurner, the task will be waiting for them when they sign up. With  this method, a simple email that you would have sent anyway instantly  becomes a trackable issue.You  can also assign issues to yourself by forwarding emails to IssueBurner, and the service will even tie attached files to  the task. Tasks can be managed from IssueBurnera4a4s website, and the  service also has a mobile-optimized site available.For  group collaboration, you can create a group on IssueBurnera4a4s site, and  add people to it. Groups get a unique email address, which will create  tasks for group members when it&amp;'s included in email messages.The  Webyog team tells me that it sees the service as something comparable  to group issue or helpdesk management services like LightHouse or  Zendesk. IssueBurner is currently free while ita4a4s in beta testing, and  it expects to implement a combination of free and paid accounts once it&amp;'s officially released.Webyog  was founded in 2005, is self-funded, and has been profitable since its  first year. The company makes money from MySQL database management tools  like SQLyog and MONyog. It also developed CloudMagic, a browser plugin  that brings fast search to Gmail.Check out a video demonstration of IssueBurner below:Next Story: Cleantech VCs are thinking small Previous Story: Chip industry expects sales to grow just 6 percent in 2011PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: CloudMagic, email, IssueBurner, task management, TasksCompanies: Webyog          Tags: CloudMagic, email, IssueBurner, task management, TasksCompanies: WebyogDevindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra.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[Zynga to launch its first Android social game]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=zynga-to-launch-its-first-android-social-game</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=zynga-to-launch-its-first-android-social-game</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=zynga-to-launch-its-first-android-social-game</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Social game maker Zynga said it&amp;'s launching games on Android-based mobile phones, beginning with Live Poker. The company, which has become famous for its games on Facebook, recently launched games on Apple&amp;'s iPhone. Its support for Android is a vote of confidence for the mobile operating system from Google, which is trying to challenge Apple.Zynga made the announcement at Facebook&amp;'s mobile event today.Zynga launched FarmVille for the iPhone earlier this summer and is developing games for mobile phones in Japan as well. Each time it adds a new platform, it has to figure out if the cost of adapting its games is worth the effort.Android has been a relatively weak platform for games, largely because of problems with Google&amp;'s Android Market. That makes it hard to do well with games that are sold as downloads on Android. But companies such as Rovio have had big hits launching free ad-supported games on Android phones, such as Angry Birds.San Francisco-based Zynga said it has no other details to announce about the game yet. Zynga&amp;'s game will take advantage of single-sign-on, a new feature from Facebook that allows users to avoid typing in numerous user names and passwords to access multiple apps on a mobile phone' instead, users can simply log into their Facebook account, and Facebook will automatically sign them in to other apps.Next Story: StumbleUpon brings its discovery tools to Android apps Previous Story: Sempra Energy: Consumers are slowly embracing Google PowerMeterPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Live PokerCompanies: Facebook, Zynga          Tags: Live PokerCompanies: Facebook, ZyngaDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.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[Local Hero: Sam Altman, Loopt]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=local-hero-sam-altman-loopt</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=local-hero-sam-altman-loopt</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=local-hero-sam-altman-loopt</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Company: LooptLocation: Mountain View, Calif.Founded: 2006Founder: Sam AltmanFunding: $17 millionEmployees: 40One of the first location-based services, Loopt has been quietly leading the charge since 2006 under chief executive and founder Sam Altman. Altman may well have coined the term a4Acheck-ina4 for the ability to find friends and activities in a specific area. With four different location-based applications running on more than 100 million devices &amp;8212' everything from BlackBerrys, Android smartphones, iPhones, and iPads.  Loopt is currently one of the most popular services with more than 4 million users. We caught up with Altman to talk more about his growing suite of location-based apps and how he plans to continue to be an innovator in the space.Why did you start the companyBecause I think location is the future of technology, and because I wanted Loopt for my friends and me to use.Whata4a4s the coolest place you checked into recentlyTwice in the last two weeks I&amp;'ve checked in on the side of the highway while getting pulled over for speeding.When did you realize it was working The first time I used Loopt to randomly meet up with a friend for lunch.What&amp;'s next for the location-based industry and servicesI see the future broken up into three major themes.First, what I call X-ray vision.  Our phones are going to help us see everything going on in the world around us.  We&amp;'ll have overlays with all of the information we care about.Second, the ability to have real-world connections.  One of the coolest things about location-based services is that unlike most technology which isolates us from each other, location-based services make us get out and do stuff and meet up with people face to face.Third, it&amp;'s moving from early adopters to very mainstream.  I&amp;'m not sure how this will change services like ours, but I expect that it will.Where are you checking in nextI&amp;'m off to a friends surprise birthday party.  I&amp;'ll try to remember NOT to check in, because I&amp;'ve ruined a surprise party like that once before.VentureBeat&amp;'s Local Heroes series is sponsored by Adobe and is also available as an Adobe Acrobat X Pro portfolio. Check out the portfolio to read the entire series and get additional content.Next Story: Local Hero: Josh Williams, Gowalla Previous Story: Local Hero: Seth Priebatsch, ScvngrPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Local Heroes, location based servicesCompanies: looptPeople: Sam Altman          Tags: Local Heroes, location based servicesCompanies: looptPeople: Sam AltmanCody Barbierri is a social and digital media consultant. He works for Piehead and blogs about social media at Social Tab. (None of his posts are about clients or their competitors.) Reach him at Cody@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Cody on Twitter.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[Entrepreneur Corner: 5 reasons not to work from home and a chaos checklist]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=entrepreneur-corner-5-reasons-not-to-work-from-home-and-a-chaos-checklist</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=entrepreneur-corner-5-reasons-not-to-work-from-home-and-a-chaos-checklist</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>poojaagarwal91</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=entrepreneur-corner-5-reasons-not-to-work-from-home-and-a-chaos-checklist</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Herea4a4s the latest from VentureBeata4a4s Entrepreneur Corner.Here&amp;'s why you should block Facebook and Twitter at your office a4&quot; Social networks are a lot of fun, but they can be corporate nightmares. Forget the lost productivity time, attorney Curtis Smolar gives five examples of updates and Tweets that might sound innocuous, but can cause major legal headaches.5 reasons working from home (or Starbucks) is a bad idea a4&quot; Calling a spare bedroom or the local coffee shop your office seems like one of the draws of the bootstrap life a4&quot; but serial entrepreneur and co-founder of thredUP James Reinhart says thata4a4s the great lie, offering five reasons that the office-less startup is no way to run a business.Your checklist for chaos a4&quot; While chaos and disorder are common at startups, therea4a4s still a lot of value in checklists and discussion. Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank talks about how this unusual approach led E.piphany to sales of $125 million in three years.Are we nearing the end of the VC dog days a4&quot; The days since the market crash of 2008 havena4a4t been good for the venture capital world, as investments have slowed. But David Millard, Chair of the Business Department of Barnes &amp;amp' Thornburg LLP, says there are signs of a thaw, which could give hope to the startup world.Hseieh: Corporate culture should be a top priority a4&quot; How many new employees at your company would turn down an offer of $3,000 to quit just weeks after starting At Zappos, which makes this offer to every employee, ita4a4s a miniscule number. Tony Hseieh explains why in this entrepreneur thought leader lecture given last month at Stanford University.Next Story: Week in review: BlueGlass challenges Demand Media with new publishing tool Previous Story: Ballmer&amp;'s got bucks: Microsoft CEO sells 12 percent of his stake in companyPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: entrepreneur corner          Tags: entrepreneur cornerChris Morris is editor of the Entrepreneur Corner on VentureBeat, helping start-up business owners launch and grow their companies. He previously worked at Yahoo! Finance, where he was managing editor, and as director of content development at CNNMoney.com. He is also a widely respected journalist in the video game and technology fields, whose work has appeared in Variety, CNBC.com, AOL and Forbes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MorrisatLargeVentureBeat 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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