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| iPhone Launch Date Rumors and Two Other Stories You Need to Know | |  Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. Today, we're looking at three particularly interesting stories. September 21 Emerges as Possible iPhone Launch Date The iPhone might hit the stores Sept. 21, if you believe the Verizon employee which told TechCrunch the company will be having an all-staff vacation blackout from September 21 to September 30. Apple is widely expected to reveal the next-generation iPhone on Sept. 12. The device is rumored to have a bigger screen size and a new, 19-pin power connector. Hulu Redesign Brings Improved Navigation Hulu has thoroughly redesigned its site, bringing improved navigation, staff picks and larger artwork for last night's TV episodes and new additions to Hulu. It's now also easier to find a particular TV show, as well as most popular and recommended shows. Apple iPhone Prototype Shows Up on eBay A prototype of Apple's iPhone is available for purchase on eBay with a $10,000 buyout price. The device, whose specifications match those of an iPhone 4, sports an unusual circular logo and the sign "prototype" on its back. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock |
| PopCap Lays Off 50 Employees | | Tuesday, August 21, 2012 1:15 PM | Amanda Wills |
|  PopCap has confirmed that it has laid off 50 people. The move is part of a reorganization tactic that includes a "reduction in force" in its North American operation, mostly in its Seattle headquarters. The company, which employees about 550 people, is still evaluating the future of its office in Dublin, Ireland, as PopCap continues to explore ways to increase its profitability in Europe without laying off more employees. PopCap Co-Founder John Vechey calls it an "exploratory consultation." "Today's news is something you expect periodically from a company in a fast-changing industry, but it sucks if you're one of the people losing his or her job," he writes in an open letter. "These people are our friends and we don't like doing this." Since EA acquired PopCap for $1.2 billion last year, the company has hired aggressively. But despite today's layoffs, Vechey says PopCap will continue to grow. "Even with the cuts we expect to end the year with roughly the same number of people we started with," he says. Just yesterday, PopCap announced that it will release a sequel to its blockbuster game Plants vs. Zombies in spring 2013. The company, which is also behind fan favorites Bejeweled and Peggle, has been known to invest in the quirky titles as social play and mobile gaming has exploded. But with quick adaptation comes the constant need to be one step ahead, predicting what consumers will want tomorrow. In order to keep investing in the new platforms, PopCap still has to evolve to maintain efficiency and, ultimately, turn a profit. "If we don't adapt, we won't be able to invest in new IP," Vechey says. "That sounds harsh - but if we don't stay in business, no more plants, zombies, jewels, frogs or worms." Earlier today, Gamezebo first reported that widespread rumors of PopCap's layoffs hit Twitter after Duke Nukem Co-Creator George Broussard tweeted on Aug. 19 that shakeups and layoffs were imminent. Image of PopCap Dublin staff courtesy of Flickr, lambatofa. |
| Online Retailer Hires Models to Give Free Hugs in NYC | | Tuesday, August 21, 2012 11:02 AM | PSFK |
|  Sometimes living in New York City can be rough. Crowded subways, smoggy air and expensive everything can put a damper on the general morale of the city. However, nothing brightens up the day like a hug, and this is especially true if it's coming from a beautiful model. This Friday, online shopping retailer Shoptiques.com will deploy five friendly models on a cross-city tour of hug-giving. The official huggers will embark at 11 a.m. from SoHo at the corner of Spring and Broadway, then move on to Washington Square Park, Union Square and Times Square, before ending at Columbus Circle. And in case you're worried you might not get your turn at a friendly embrace, you can also book one in advance and/or "track a model&" on the website. So, just what kind of retailer offers one of the more unusual ad gimmicks of the pre-fashion season run up? In its own words, Shoptique.com acts as "a one-of-a-kind online destination for discovering and exploring local boutiques across the country, Shoptiques.com lets you instantly jet set from New York to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Miami and beyond (and very soon, the world!) to explore the best-kept secrets beloved by locals and the savviest shoppers." Offering a carefully selection of top boutiques with unique, Shoptiques.com was created to be a sort of aggregated website that bypasses the larger retailers in favor of the local and underground, and without the hassle of searching through hundreds of websites for specific items. In addition, Shoptique also offers personal style advice and recommendations with an emphasis on emerging, niche or local designers. Shoptiques.com also lets you shop by boutique, neighborhood, clothing type and new arrivals, as well as refine your search by color, price, size and style. Seeing as how it's easy to get sucked into that wormhole of searching countless small boutique websites for the best deal on your favorite just-below-the-radar labels, the site aims to take a lot of the leg work out of this research, and hopefully save you hours of scanning. If you're in NYC this week, plan a lunch break so you can meet up with the roving band of models. Check out the route below. |
| Gannett Buys Social Media Marketing Firm Blinq | | Tuesday, August 21, 2012 9:59 AM | Todd Wasserman |
| | Newspaper chain Gannett on Tuesday announced it was buying social media marketing firm Blinq Media to help position itself as a "leader in local and global social media marketing." The acquisition gives Gannett access to Blinq's 600 advertisers and to BAM 2.0, Blinq's technology platform for social media campaign planning, set-up, management, optimization and metrics. Terms were not disclosed. SEE ALSO: Why Are B2B Social Media Firms So Hot? Though its business is still closely aligned with print, Gannett in recent years has sought to expand its digital offerings to advertisers, most notably via its $100 million acquisition of PointRoll in 2005. PointRoll is best known for offering rich media banner ads. The Blinq purchase is one of several acquisitions in the category this year, including Oracle's $300 million purchase of Vitrue, Salesforce.com's BuddyMedia buy and Google's acquisition of Wildfire Interactive. The impetus for the activity appears to be rooted in the belief that chief marketing officers are having growing purchase power for such services within blue chip companies. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, KaeArt |
| 3 Top Female Founders Answer Your Questions About Startup Life [LIVE CHAT] | | Tuesday, August 21, 2012 9:31 AM | Lauren Drell |
|  Over the past three weeks, we've shed light on America's 8.3 million women-owned businesses, spurred by American Express OPEN's recent report, The State of Women-Owned Businesses. In our Female Founders Series, we've spoken with prominent female founders about their influences, their ambitions and the challenges they've faced, in hopes of helping other aspiring female founders to embark on the journey, or to keep going. We've named 44 female founders whom every entrepreneur should know, and the series has sparked quite a conversation in the comments and on social media. Now it's your turn to ask a few of these female founders your questions -- face to face. At 2 p.m., we're going live with three female founders to talk about the entrepreneurial journey and how to build your own business. Join us at 2 p.m. for a Spreecast panel -- moderated by Allison Silver, VP Brand, Advertising and Advocacy at American Express OPEN -- with these accomplished women: Rachel Sklar, Founder, Change the Ratio and TheLi.st Angela Jia Kim, Founder, Om Aroma and Savor the Success Kellee Khalil, Founder and CEO, Lover.ly The Spreecast is embedded below -- log in to ask questions via chat or to go on-camera with the panelists. You can also tweet your questions, but be sure to include the hashtags #FemaleFounders and #PoweringTomorrow. Thanks for joining us and for #PoweringTomorrow! Series presented by American Express OPEN
The Female Founders Series is presented by American Express OPEN. For the full State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, visit openforum.com/women. American Express OPEN salutes, celebrates and wants to help fuel the future of women business owners. Join the conversation on Twitter and tell American Express OPEN how you're #PoweringTomorrow in your community and with your business. |
| Online Security Tips for Journalists | | Tuesday, August 21, 2012 8:27 AM | International Journalists' Network |
|  Keeping your data safe is an essential part of working online. Whether you're a journalist working in dangerous parts of the world or, like Wired's Matt Honan, who found his entire online life, hard drive and phone wiped out in an hour by a hacker, it's time to get serious about your data. Robert Guerra, a specialist in cybersecurity and data privacy, gave a few tips on how to stay safe online. 1. Surfing the Web We've mentioned before how important "https" can be for surfing the web. If you're using a public connection or someone hacks your network and you're not using https, they'll be able to see what you browse. "They can see your username and password when you log into your email," Guerra said. Some browsers already use this feature, but it's not always activated automatically for every website you visit. The safest bet? Download and install the Https Everywhere extension, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This activates https navigation in your browser automatically. The extension is currently only available for Firefox and Google Chrome. 2. Using Your Email Https: Most of us have vital personal and professional information in our email accounts. If you're using Gmail, Guerra recommends activating the "Always use https" option on "Browser Connection" in your general account settings. Forwarding Email: Another important precaution is to check that your emails are not being forwarded to another email account without your authorization. Many activists in China have reported that when their accounts were hacked, nothing was destroyed and their passwords weren't changed. However, they found that an authorized email address was connected to their account, so every email they were sending out was being forwarded to another, unknown email account, explained Guerra. You can check this in Gmail account settings under the "Forward and POP/IMAP" tab. Two-step Verification: One of the lessons learned from Honan's piece is to always use a two-step verification system that will be triggered whenever someone accesses your email account from an unfamiliar computer. First, you'll need to add a phone number to your Google account. From that point on, a code will be sent to your phone whenever you try to access your account from an unfamiliar computer. The code can only be used once. If you don't want to receive the codes via text or voice message, you can also download the Google Authenticator app or use the codes Google generates for you by clicking on "Show backup codes" in your Google account. "You can print them and store them somewhere safe," Guerra suggested. You can check out this video for more information on how to set up a two-step verification system in your Google account. How to Find Out If Your Email Has Been Hacked You can check if your Gmail account has been accessed by someone else by going to the bottom right corner of the screen and clicking on "Details." A window will open, showing the activity on the account, including access type (browser, mobile, POP, etc.), the location (IP address, state and country) and the date and time. You can also configure settings in this window so you are sent an alert for unusual activity. Staying Safe on Social Media Guerra recommended setting up https navigation in your Facebook and Twitter settings and setting up a login notification in Facebook to alert you of unusual activity. Guerra gave his tips during a two-hour webinar organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. Have you ever been hacked? Do you have any other tips to stay safe online? Tell us in the comments below. |
| Amazon Glacier Promises Storage as Low as $.01 Per Gigabyte | | Tuesday, August 21, 2012 8:05 AM | Todd Wasserman |
| | Amazon on Tuesday rolled out Glacier, a cloud service that charges as little as .01 per month per gigabyte for storage. The company is able to achieve the low costs by optimizing the service for data that is infrequently accessed and for which retrieval times of several hours are acceptable. The price compares to the roughly .10 per GB and .12 per GB that Google and Amazon are charging, respectively. Amazon is positioning Glacier as an inexpensive option for companies that don't need constant access to their data. "Use Amazon Glacier if low storage cost is paramount, your data is rarely retrieved, and data retrieval times of several hours are acceptable," Amazon advises. Though Amazon is positioning Glacier as a low-cost alternative to its S3 cloud service, the company plans to "introduce an option that will allow customers to seamlessly move data between Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier based on data lifecycle policies," in coming months. For more information on Glacier, click here. Image courtesy of Flickr, Jay Galvin |
| Barnes & Noble's Nook Sales Fall, But Digital Content Sales Increase | | Tuesday, August 21, 2012 8:05 AM | Lauren Indvik |
|  Sales of Barnes & Noble's line of tablets and e-readers declined in the company's fiscal 2013 first quarter ending July 28, the bookseller reported Tuesday. Digital content sales increased 46%. That was enough to make up for shrinking income from devices, which suffered lower average selling prices and production scaling issues -- particularly for the Nook GlowLight B&N released in April, the company said. Collectively, total revenues for B&N's Nook unit which includes digital content and accessories as well as hardware, amounted to $192 million, just $1 million more than it brought in during the comparable period last year. Hardware sales were bad in B&N's last fiscal quarter, too. The company reported that it was forced to sell its devices at a lower margin to compete with Amazon's Kindle lineup. Holiday sales of some devices -- in particular, its $139 Nook Simple Touch E-Ink reader -- were so poor that the company was forced to buy back inventory. E-readers were also returned in unexpectedly high numbers after the holidays, the company said. Those numbers may seem bad at first glance, but remember that Amazon takes a loss on sales of its Kindle Fire tablet and E-Ink e-readers, as well. For now, at least, B&N's digital content sales are covering that loss. Total revenues for the quarter were up marginally to $1.45 billion. The company's net loss amounted to $41 million, or .78 per share, an improvement on the loss of $57 million, or .99 per share, last year. Shares were trading up ahead of the market open, but down around 1.7% late Tuesday morning. There were no updates on Newco, the new company B&N is developing with $300 million in investment from Microsoft. "The company continues to be actively engaged in the formation of Newco and is in the process of implementing the work necessary to complete the Microsoft transaction," B&N said in its earnings statement. "The company expects the Microsoft transaction to close this Fall." B&N announced Monday that it plans to expand its Nook business to the UK this fall. |
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