Kinnetix blog

MetaLab Accuses Mozilla Of Plagiarizing Its Design

Jason Kincaid — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:39:52 +0000

Andrew Wilkinson of MetaLab Design has just written a blog post accusing Mozilla of plagiarizing the design of its FlightDeck editor. To make matters worse, Wilkinson says that MetaLabs actually bid on creating the design for FlightDeck months ago, but was turned down by Mozilla. While Wilkinson is understandably upset, at this point,it looks like the plagiarized image is just a mockup on the Mozilla wiki — not the actual product (though it's obviously still in bad taste). We've reached out to Mozilla for a comment. You can see a screenshot comparison from Wilkinson's blog post below.

Live: Google Apps Marketplace Launches At Google Campfire One

MG Siegler — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:04:54 +0000

Tonight, Google is hosting one of their Campfire One events at their headquarters in Mountain View, CA. They're using the event to launch their new Google Apps Marketplace. This is the app store that business applications can use to reach the more than 25 million people and 2 million business that use Google Apps for their domains. Below, find our live notes.

Amazon Wields $25 Gift Certificates To Pacify Frustrated Comic Book Fans

Jason Kincaid — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:36:44 +0000

Over the last few days, a strange situation has been brewing between Amazon and a sizable number of comic book fans. On March 7, Bleeding Cool broke the news of an apparent Amazon sale featuring high quality hardcover Marvel graphic novels at bargain-basement prices of $14.99, when their retail prices were more along the lines of $125. Alas, it turned out to be a pricing error. Amazon could have simply canceled the orders (which is common practice for online retailers), but instead, it tried to do right by its users and said it would honor some of the orders. Except it didn't actually have enough books in stock to do what it promised, leading to another wave of frustration from the comics fans. Now Amazon is looking to smooth things over with some $25 dollar gift certificates. The tale is a bit complicated. After word of the apparent sale began to spread, plenty of comics fans began to snatch up the books as quickly as they could, causing some of the graphic novels to climb toward the top of Amazon's best seller lists.

SXSW Interactive: Because hell doesn’t have enough promotional stickers

Paul Carr — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:34:25 +0000

Later this week, thousands of ironic t-shirts will be arriving in Austin for the 16th annual South By Southwest Interactive festival. At about this time, it's traditional for tech publications to publish handy guides to "surviving SXSWi" - packed with useful advice that's basically interchangeable with that for any other festival since the beginning of time. "Drink plenty of water!" "Prepare for some late nights!" "Plan ahead to make sure you don't miss anything!" "Pack sturdy shoes!" "Always use a condom!". Useful advice for SXSWi, certainly, but also applicable for Oktoberfest, Glastonbury, Woodstock and the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia (although for the latter, replace 'shoes' with 'sandals' and 'condom' with 'sprig of silphium'). This year, though, I decided to use my experience of past SXSWi's to produce something more useful. A very specific and completely foolproof guide on surviving this year's event. And here it is... Tip One: Don't go to South by Southwest Interactive.

Twitter Starts Routing All Links Through New Anti-Phishing Service

Jason Kincaid — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:14:48 +0000

Twitter has just announced that it is launching a new anti-phishing feature that allows Twitter's Trust and Safety team to monitor all links submitted through the service for potentially malicious attacks. Part of the new feature will involve the use of Twitter's link shortener twt.tl, which may now start popping up in some of your emails and direct messages. At this point, it's not really clear which links are being converted to Twitter's twt.tl shortened links. We just ran a test at the TC office with two different links: one for an article on GigaOm, and another for a bit.ly link that pointed to a page on Google Buzz. The links I received on my Twitter client were both unchanged, but both were converted to twt.tl links in our Email notifications (obviously neither of them had malicious content).

SV Angel Partner Brian Pokorny Now CEO Of Dailybooth

Michael Arrington — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:17:19 +0000

SV Angel, the angel fund founded by super-angel Ron Conway, is losing one of its general partners to a portfolio company. Brian Pokorny is now the CEO of fast-growing Silicon Valley-based Dailybooth. Dailybooth, the runner up in the "best social app" and winner of the "time sink" categories at this year's Crunchies Awards, is "your life in pictures." Some 6 million monthly visitors share pictures and status updates with eachother. "It's a community for self expression," says Pokorny. A typical interaction: a users posts a photo, taken with their webcam, showing what they're eating, what they're feeling, or perhaps with friends in the background. Other user then respond via text or photos. Some strings go on for hundreds of responses. Here's an example.

Google’s Chief Economist: “Newspapers Have Never Made Much Money From News”

Erick Schonfeld — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:09:54 +0000

Earlier today, Google chief economist gave a presentation to an FTC workshop on the changing economics of the newspaper industry. We all know that newspaper ad revenues have been falling off a cliff for years. Many media companies blame Google and are trying to put the genie back in the bottle with partial metered models for online news. Google is understandably on the defensive, trotting out Varian to paint an unemotional picture with as much data as he can muster. But the picture he paints is a dour one for print media. For instance, the chart above shows the decline of overall newspaper ad revenues. Newspapers have taken huge hits in classifieds advertising (in blue) and national brand advertising (in red). The online portion (green) is still too small to make much of a difference.

Tweetie 2 Gaining Native Foursquare Support

MG Siegler — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:17:19 +0000

While Loren Brichter may be hard at work on Tweetie Two for the Mac, he hasn't given on his baby: Tweetie 2 for the iPhone. While the app hasn't been updated since late November, a new build is due shortly with one big addition: native Foursquare support. What this means is that anytime someone in your tweet stream sends out a tweet from Foursquare (which, to the annoyance of some users, happens automatically at times), that Foursquare link (shown as a 4sq.com URL) will be able to be opened in Tweetie in a way that displays the location information in a nice format. When a tweet is eligible for this feature, you'll see a purple square logo in the upper right hand corner of the tweet in Tweetie.

Chomp Closes In On 300,000 Users, Launches App Review Site And Chomp Connect

Erick Schonfeld — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:57:35 +0000

When Chomp launched eight weeks ago in the iTunes store, it launched as an app for reviewing other iPhone apps. The app shows you a stream of realtime reviews, which you can filter by everyone or just your Facebook freinds. The app is showing some traction and should hit 300,000 active monthly users sometime tomorrow, according to co-founder Ben Keighran. While it started out as an app, today Chomp launched a complimentary Website with full app search capabilities and links for each app. There, users can also see the stream of reviews, as well as dedicated pages for each app and vanity URLs for each reviewer. Developers can now link to the Chomp reviews directly from inside their apps using Chomp Connect, which also launched today in private beta. Chomp Connect lets developers add Chomp review buttons right inside their apps without forcing to go anywhere else.

Embrace Your Inner Geek At The New Linux Store

Leena Rao — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:50:14 +0000

The Linux Foundation, the non-profit that supports the growth of the Linux kernel, has launched a merchandise store where people can purchase a newly launched line of original T-shirts, hats, mugs and other items that reflect “geek culture." According a release sent out by the Foundation, merchandise available in the Linux.com store is "designed to reflect the unique and varied culture associated with Linux" and will support the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds. For example, t-shirts contain phrases like "Free The Code," "FSCK the Establishment," and "Fork You." All revenue generated from the store will go directly towards Linux Foundation activities, initiatives and events.

PANIC! Study Finds That Students are Addicted To Their iPhones!

Scott Merrill — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:37:54 +0000

200 students surveyed in a Stanford study were found to be "addicted" to their iPhones. "When asked to rank their dependence on the iPhone on a scale of one to five – five being addicted and one being not at all addicted – 10 percent of the students acknowledged full addiction to the device, 34 percent ranked themselves as a four on the scale, and only 6 percent said they weren't addicted at all."

NYT: Facebook Location Features Coming Next Month

Jason Kincaid — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:30:03 +0000

Facebook is finally going to enter the location game at this April's f8 conference, according to a report this morning on the NYT's Bits blog. And they're looking to take Google head on. We've been hearing rumors about Facebook's location features for a long time, but the buzz has picked up in the last few months. Those rumors got legs in October, when we noticed that the site had added language explicitly talking about location features to its rewritten privacy policy. The question now is exactly what this location sharing will look like. I've heard that Facebook has tested simply attaching location data to user status updates, similar to the way Twitter does it.

Just In Time For The Location Wars, Twitter Turns On Geolocation On Its Website

MG Siegler — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:17:16 +0000

When I wrote that location would be this year's Twitter at SXSW, I also meant that Twitter's geolocation would be this year's Twitter at SXSW. The service has just turned on geolocation on its website today for the first time. While Twitter's geolocation feature has been live through its API since last November, there was no sign of integration into the main twitter.com site until now. As you can see in the screenshot above, for tweets tagged with location, right next to the source of the tweet there is a location placemarker. When you hover over it, it turns blue, and clicking on it brings up a little Google map showing the location that tweet was sent from.

It’s Official: We’re No Longer Updating Our Twitter Accounts, We’re Tweeting

Robin Wauters — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:05:06 +0000

Twitter has quietly changed the wording on the button users need to press to update their statuses on the Twitter.com website. It took them 10 billion (or so) tweets to realize we don't 'Update', we 'Tweet'. A lot of people are noticing the change, although I have to say I had to hit the refresh button of my browser a couple of times before I saw it too.

Yao Yao Taiwan

Gulraiz Akram — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:31:30 +0000

Yao Yao Taiwan, Recently as I was watching Taiwanese variety show, I realised that Yao Yao has been participating a great deal and is getting really popular. However, I was not unaware how Yao Yao gained her popularity. Apart from having a very pretty and angel looking face and an exceptionally figure. She is currently [...]

Sarah Rogers Missing

Gulraiz Akram — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:21:07 +0000

Sarah Rogers Missing, Police hope the public can help provide information on the whereabouts of a local woman who has been missing since Dec. 13. Sarah Rogers, 29, was last seen in town on Dec. 13, according to police officer Toby Perry. Her family contacted police on that date and expressed concerns about her whereabouts. There is [...]

More beauty secrets

Asif Jah — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:19:04 +0000

Even if you’ve got blemished skin, don’t be tempted to pack on the powder, says beauty queen Rachel Kum. She reveals more of her beauty techniques here.

Team Europe Ventures Starts €6m Fund For Early Stage Startups

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:53:49 +0000

Team Europe Ventures, the Berlin-based VC firm, has launched a new €6 million fund for early stage startups in the Internet and mobile Internet space. The fund is mainly targeting companies in Germany and Europe, but also in the USA, and the focus will be on the seed stage, with 4-5 startups being invested in per-year for a maximum of €500K per company. This is bound to be good news for startups in Europe, and particularly in Germany where seed funding is seen to be a problem for early stage companies in the Internet space.

Fosamax and femur fractures

Asif Jah — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:48:21 +0000

Fosamax: Is Long Term Use of Bone Strengthening Drug Linked to Fractures? Fosamax, one in a class of drugs called bisphosphonates, is supposed to make bones stronger. But now there’s mounting evidence that for some women, taking Fosamax or its generic alendronate for more than five years could cause spontaneous fractures. “We are seeing people just walking, [...]

Autoquake Gets Another £6m Investment From Its Backers

Mike Butcher — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:47:11 +0000

Autoquake, an online used car retailer in the UK, has raised another £6 million round of venture capital and venture debt financing from existing investors Accel Partners and Highland Capital Partners. The debt is being provided by Kreos Capital. This is after raising £4m from Accel and Highland only last year. That takes its total funding so far to £20 million. The money will be used to expand internationally. Autoquake's plan is to disrupt the car retail industry by selling quality used cars on behalf of large corporate fleets and leasing companies direct to consumers via virtual showrooms. High quality pictures of the actual cars on sale appear instead of the usual fuzzy pictures on the average second hand advert.

Allmyapps Updates Its iTunes-for-apps, Get Some Beta Invites

TechCrunch Europe — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:44:40 +0000

I first learned of Allmyapps at Le Web '09 when the company's CEO Thibauld Favre, and co-Founder Aranaud Coulondre, grabbed my attention and enticed me into a demo. I nearly missed my flight. Allmyapps, a small but ambitious startup based in France, aims to become the "iTunes for software applications" as Thibauld puts it, bringing simple 1 click multi-application install to end-users.

Platogo Lets Developers Make Their Casual Games Facebook Ready

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:34:29 +0000

Platogo, the social games platform, has released its Platogo Wrapper that enables casual games developers to easily integrate their games with Facebook by inserting a few lines of code. Essentially, it lets any casual game take advantages of the basic social features offered through Facebook, such as the ability for a user to invite and play with friends in their social graph and see how their scores compare, challenge each other, and display their gaming achievements on their Facebook wall.

Ohio State Shooting, Ohio State University Shooting

Asif Jah — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:22:24 +0000

Ohio State University says a worker suspected in a deadly campus shooting has died. A new Ohio State University custodial employee who received a bad job evaluation shot two co-workers in a campus-maintenance building, killing one of them, and then fatally shot himself, officials said Tuesday. No students were hurt and classes went on as [...]

DG ISI extended for one year

Asif Jah — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:19:35 +0000

Lahore, Pakistan:- Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Tuesday extended service of Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha, for one year. Summary in this regard was sent to the Prime Minister 15 days ago which was accepted. Pasha was scheduled to retire from service on March 18, 2010.

MyNines Launches As The Kayak For Private Sales

Leena Rao — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:09:31 +0000

Online private sales is a growing business model that is rapidly becoming a staple of online shopping. Ideeli, Gilt Groupe, Vente-Privee, HauteLook and others are quickly gaining millions of users each and attracting significant amounts of venture funding. But the one issue I find with these sites is that it's annoying to have to check each site every day for sales. I subscribe to almost a dozen different sites, which means sorting through the notification emails each day and then logging in and trying to shop on each site. Often the sales take place at the same time, so I need to prioritize which site has more appealing goods for a given day. Today, MyNines is emerging to streamline the private sale space by offering a Kayak.com for private sale sites. MyNines aggregates products from various online sample sale sites and allows shoppers to find them all in location. Users can search and filter by designer, category, highest discounts, as well as deals ending soonest, most viewed items, deals under $100, and newly listed. MyNines currently aggregates from 14 different private sale sites including, Billion Dollar Babes, Ebay FashionVault, Wired For Wine, Gomatta Girls, Guiltless Purse, Left Lane Sports, Reverse, Enviius, BeautyTicket, BonVoYou, Editor's Closet, DD Push and JomaShop.

Designers showcase collection at Fashion Week

Asif Jah — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:47:33 +0000

Elegance and grace marked the fourth day of Lakmé India Fashion Week (LIFW) where renowned designer Vikram Phadnis showcased his summer collection in the western city of Mumbai. Models showcased the collection, wearing georgette, chiffon, jersey, crepe and linen. Phadnis aptly named the collection ‘Summer Resort’, which consisted of cream panelled swing tops, [...]

India’s Gandhi says coalition intact after bill row

Asif Jah — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:42:49 +0000

NEW DELHI: The head of India’s Congress party said on Tuesday its ruling coalition was intact, despite a key ally breaking ranks to abstain as a bill to reserve a third of parliamentary seats for women was passed by the upper house. Already under fire over issues such as food inflation and a proposed hike in [...]

Lahore High Court rejects Lakhvi’s appeal

Asif Jah — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:35:16 +0000

LAHORE: Lahore High Court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of Mumbai attacks’ accused Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi. Lakhvi appealed the court to release him because there were insufficient proofs against him therefore he should be released against the decision of the anti-terrorists court. The court rejected his appeal and retained the verdict of the anti-terrorist court. The court said [...]

StatusNet Signs Up ABC News And Sh*t My Dad Says For Hosted Microblogging (Public Beta)

Erick Schonfeld — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:25:35 +0000

Does the world need more than one Twitter? How about 10,000 of them? That is how many sites are running on the hosted version of StatusNet, which went into private beta at our Realtime CrunchUp last November. Today, StatusNet is opening up its hosted service to all comers in a public beta. You can think about StatusNet as the WordPress of microblogging. StatusNet is open-source software which can either be downloaded and run on your own enterprise servers or now on StatusNet's hosted servers. Basic service is free, with plans to charge for premium levels down the line. The premium versions will be ad-free, support unlimited users, larger file sizes, your own domain and design, Facebook and Twitter integration, and XMPP feeds.

Go Tribal Wants To Help Women Coordinate Social Plans

Leena Rao — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:59:01 +0000

We've written about Plancast, a "Foursquare For The Future," that essentially broadcasts your plans to your online social circle. We're big fans of the startup, which just raised seed funding from an impressive group of investors. Startup Go Tribal is rolling out a different take on the social planning application, launching a site for a more targeted audience: women. Go Tribal has simple ambitions. The site basically aims to help women answer the question, "who's down to go out?" Users can sign set up an account and broadcast message to their friends to see who is down for going out. Of course, you can tap into your social graph via Facebook Connect, but all of the planning needs to take place on Go Tribal's site and each participant needs to sign up for an account to start "planning." Once you see which friends are available, you can vote on, discuss, and finalize your plans. In terms of privacy, there are three levels of privacy for plans. You can opt to go public with your plans, private (plans are only visible to your Go Tribal friends) or locked (plans are only visible to the people invited to the plan).