http://news.syberplanet.net All The Tech News U Wanted Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:18:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc en hourly 1 SyberNewshttp://feedburner.google.com http://news.syberplanet.net/confirmed-pandora-raises-a-huge-round-post-streaming-rate-agreement/ http://news.syberplanet.net/confirmed-pandora-raises-a-huge-round-post-streaming-rate-agreement/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 01:18:34 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=81354 With its potential troubles behind it, having reached a deal to stream music while staying afloat financially, it looks like Pandora is getting flush with cash. The Internet streaming radio service has raised a new $35 million round of funding, multiple sources told peHUB earlier, and we've just confirmed the round with the company. Pandora is being mum on the huge number, but is saying that Greylock Partners led the round and that Greylock partner David Sze will be joining Pandora's board. Greylock joins existing investors Crosslink Capital, Walden Venture Capital, Labrador Ventures, King Street Capital, Hearst Corporation, DBL Investors, and Selby Ventures in the funding.]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/confirmed-pandora-raises-a-huge-round-post-streaming-rate-agreement/feed/ 0 http://news.syberplanet.net/crunchup-live-the-main-event-real-time-round-table/ http://news.syberplanet.net/crunchup-live-the-main-event-real-time-round-table/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:33:56 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=81442 Here it is. The final panel discussion of our Real-Time CrunchUp conference. Judging from the participants, it should be a good one. Here's the roster: Iain Dodsworth, TweetDeck Nick Halstead, Tweetmeme David Hornik, August Capital Bret Taylor, Friendfeed George Zachary, Charles River Ventures Loic LeMeur, Seesmic Dan'l Lewin, Microsoft Craig Walker, Google Andreas Weigend, people & data, and Stanford University Kevin Marks, former Google Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch Steve Gillmor, TechCrunchIT (Moderator) Find my live notes below (paraphrased):]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/crunchup-live-the-main-event-real-time-round-table/feed/ 0 http://news.syberplanet.net/crunchup-live-real-time-business/ http://news.syberplanet.net/crunchup-live-real-time-business/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:58:00 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=81435 We’re here at the Real-Time CrunchUp, listening to the Real Time Business Panel featuring: Porter Gale, Virgin America Adam Pisoni, Yammer Maynard Webb, LiveOps Eric Marcoullier, Gnip Ross Mayfield, SocialText John Ham, UStream Max Ventilla, Aardvark Tim Young, Social Cast Follow my live notes below (paraphrased). You can also watch the live video stream here.]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/crunchup-live-real-time-business/feed/ 0 http://news.syberplanet.net/myspace-hires-former-aol-and-tsavo-exec-mike-macadaan-as-vp-product/ http://news.syberplanet.net/myspace-hires-former-aol-and-tsavo-exec-mike-macadaan-as-vp-product/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:28:17 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=81409 MySpace continues to hire and fire in their attempt to recreate the struggling but still huge social networking service. They've just hired, we've confirmed, former AOL and Tsavo exec Mike Macadaan, who we hear will become the company's VP Product, to report to Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn. Macadaan spent ten months at Tsavo Media before announcing his departure from the company in June. Now it looks like he's following former Tsavo CEO Mike Jones, who was recently appointed as MySpace's COO, to the social network (the two also worked together at AOL prior to Tsavo).]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/myspace-hires-former-aol-and-tsavo-exec-mike-macadaan-as-vp-product/feed/ 0 http://news.syberplanet.net/friendfeed-promises-penicillin-for-the-%e2%80%9csyphilis%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%94-we-sign-up-again/ http://news.syberplanet.net/friendfeed-promises-penicillin-for-the-%e2%80%9csyphilis%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%94-we-sign-up-again/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:20:38 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=81343 So. Maybe you read Michael's rant about FriendFeed being like syphilis. His point was that its brilliant technology which facilitates real-time discussions is also perfect for mobs. Mobs that rally around hot topics, and get whipped up into saying fairly awful things about people they don't really know. I've written similar things in the past as well. Anyways, a mob situation came up led to us pulling our FriendFeed account. Today at our Real-Time CrunchUp, Michael sat down with FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor and Robert Scoble, one of the service's leading cheerleaders. Scoble has disagreed with Michael in the past that FriendFeed commenting could lead to a problem. But today, he agreed with him when put on the spot. But the more interesting part of the discussion was Taylor also admitting that the mob-mentality (though he wouldn't use those words) was more or less a problem. And they're working on a solution.]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/friendfeed-promises-penicillin-for-the-%e2%80%9csyphilis%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%94-we-sign-up-again/feed/ 0 http://news.syberplanet.net/mag-ma-bubbles-up-300-invites-for-techcrunch-readers/ http://news.syberplanet.net/mag-ma-bubbles-up-300-invites-for-techcrunch-readers/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:12:25 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=80939 Last May we got our first taste of Mag.ma, Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron's new online video startup that looks to help surface interesting new videos in real-time. The site is still in private beta as it continues to introduce new features (it was pretty bare bones last time I tried it out, but has improved significantly since), and today it's opening up 300 invites to TechCrunch readers in honor of our RealTime CrunchUp. To get one, just go to Mag.ma and use the code CRUNCHUP09. Most people will use Mag.ma primarily for its 'wall' of videos, which presents a list of the most recent and hottest clips on the web. As I wrote back when I first covered the site, Mag.ma is a great place to go if you're looking to kill some time, as it features a constantly changing flow of interesting and/or funny videos that are updated in real-time. These videos are broken into channels by source (Mag.ma pulls from sites including YouTube, CollegeHumor, and Digg), but you can also choose to 'follow' the streams created by other users. ]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/mag-ma-bubbles-up-300-invites-for-techcrunch-readers/feed/ 0 http://news.syberplanet.net/tunein-a-media-dashboard-for-your-twitter-stream/ http://news.syberplanet.net/tunein-a-media-dashboard-for-your-twitter-stream/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:09:15 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=81355 Twitter has quickly turned into one of the best places to discover new media — be it video, images, or links — as soon as it comes out. Videos that may take hours or even days to surface on sites like Digg can virally spread across Twitter in a fraction of the time. As Fred Wilson put it, the value of Twitter lies in "the power of passed links". TuneIn, a new startup presenting today at today's RealTime CrunchUp, is looking to harness this media and present it in an easily searchable, consumable format. Using the site should be pretty straightforward for anyone who has used the main Twitter web interface. You'll see your normal Twitter feed in the center of the page, but on the right side you'll also see a list of the latest article links, videos, and photos that your Twitter friends have shared.]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/tunein-a-media-dashboard-for-your-twitter-stream/feed/ 0 http://news.syberplanet.net/12seconds-lays-an-iphone-video-messenger-on-top-of-twitter%e2%80%99s-social-graph/ http://news.syberplanet.net/12seconds-lays-an-iphone-video-messenger-on-top-of-twitter%e2%80%99s-social-graph/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:58:43 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=80994 12seconds has had an iPhone app for a while now. Unfortunately, it was fairly crippled because iPhones couldn't shoot video, so you had to take still pictures and make 12 second collages. Now, with the iPhone 3GS you can shoot video. And so 12seconds is making its app a whole lot better. Unveiled today at our Real-Time Stream CrunchUp event, the "12seconds Video Messenger for Twitter", is an app that's all about sending short video messages to your friends. And while 12seconds already has a social graph of its own from its website, it understands that Twitter's social graph is much larger — and so it's laying this new app on top of that.]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/12seconds-lays-an-iphone-video-messenger-on-top-of-twitter%e2%80%99s-social-graph/feed/ 0 http://news.syberplanet.net/js-kit%e2%80%99s-real-time-commenting-widget-echo-captures-the-pulse-of-comments-on-the-web/ http://news.syberplanet.net/js-kit%e2%80%99s-real-time-commenting-widget-echo-captures-the-pulse-of-comments-on-the-web/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:51:59 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=81131 Comments are taking on a life of their own now as Facebook Connect and other modes of commenting communication become increasingly popular. Comments are evolving into what some say are "social gestures," instead of conventional comments and these gestures are taking place all over the web, not just on a publisher's site. Just look at the amount of reTweets a popular TechCrunch article gets on Twitter-it can reach into the thousands. JS-Kit, a company that offers an array of Javascript-based commenting, polling, and ratings widgets, is launching a new commenting product at TechCrunch's Real-Time Stream CrunchUp that is designed to change the way users comment and the way publishers interact with comments. Echo, JS-Kit's real-time streaming commenting widget, aggregates any Tweets, Diggs, or FriendFeed updates that a commenter is making about a webpage and pulls it into the stream. Here's the live stream feed of the event. I had the opportunity to demo the widget and it's pretty cool. Echo's technology will crawls social networks and sites including Twitter, for the url links to an article or post on a site (it even is able to discover shortened urls) and then reassembles the comments from the web into the widget's real-time stream. ]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/js-kit%e2%80%99s-real-time-commenting-widget-echo-captures-the-pulse-of-comments-on-the-web/feed/ 0 http://news.syberplanet.net/qik-launches-push-api-mobile-to-mobile-video-streaming/ http://news.syberplanet.net/qik-launches-push-api-mobile-to-mobile-video-streaming/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:47:24 +0000 Syberplanet http://www.techcrunch.com/?p=81020 Mobile video streaming service Qik has just announced a new Push API at today's Realtime CrunchUp in Redwood City. The new API, which is currently in private beta, offers a firehose of new Qik content that will allow developers to immediately update their apps with new Qik videos as they come in. Depending on the app, users will now be able to specify which Qik users, tags, or locations they'd like to follow and immediately get an update once a video matching that criteria goes live. Alongside the new API, Qik is also allowing select mobile phones to stream live video directly from the web (previously you've been restricted to watching archived clips from mobile devices). Unfortunately the iPhone doesn't support live mobile viewing at this point (you can still only watch archived clips), but Qik will be supporting Nokia and Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones. This is especially cool because you'll be able to receive immediate push notifications on supported phones, and immediately jump into the phone's mobile browser to start watching the video. ]]> http://news.syberplanet.net/qik-launches-push-api-mobile-to-mobile-video-streaming/feed/ 0