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Worldwide Biggies, a digital entertainment studio headed by former Nickelodeon and Spike TV President Albie Hecht, has closed a $9 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by NBC Universal and Platform Equity, also getting a large chunk of that change from Hearst Corporation, Alan Patricoft’s Greycroft Partners and Prism Venture works.
The production studio creates content that’s directed for a multi-platform distribution model, offering content to be streamed online, on mobile phones, television, film, and consumer products. Covering all its bases, Worldwide Biggies is looking to attract the entire gamut of advertisers, regardless of what type of campaign medium they’d like to try their hand for. The type of content Worldwide Biggies creates is specifically for kids, young adults and all kinds of family-friendly fun, manifested in games for communities, webisodes and gametoons.
While this isn’t a direct investment in social networking, and isn’t solely focused on the development of broadband content, the cross-platform efforts of Worldwide Biggies indicates the approach that many from traditional media realms are taking, converging the different types of content along with the many different devices on which content can be spread. We’re seeing this convergence take place with others like UStream and MyDamnChannel. NBC is also moving more aggressively into cross-platform distribution, including its programming for V Cast customers.
Monday, August 6, 2007
ROCK YOUR FIREFOX: Firefox Launches Facebook Application
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Firefox has launched an application for Facebook. “Rock Your Firefox” allows users to share their favorite Firefox add-ons and see which add-ons their friends are using. It’s part of the ongoing community outreach by Firefox, and currently has about 500 members one day after going live.
Much like the Firefox add-ons directory, you can browse and search add-ons within Facebook. The difference, however, is the addition of the social grid, meaning you can discover new add-ons through Facebook friends. It’s a cool little app with some excellent branding; one wonders if Blake Ross, the Firefox founder (whose Parakey startup was just acquired by Facebook) had to give them a nudge, or whether this was coming regardless.
Firefox has launched an application for Facebook. “Rock Your Firefox” allows users to share their favorite Firefox add-ons and see which add-ons their friends are using. It’s part of the ongoing community outreach by Firefox, and currently has about 500 members one day after going live.
Much like the Firefox add-ons directory, you can browse and search add-ons within Facebook. The difference, however, is the addition of the social grid, meaning you can discover new add-ons through Facebook friends. It’s a cool little app with some excellent branding; one wonders if Blake Ross, the Firefox founder (whose Parakey startup was just acquired by Facebook) had to give them a nudge, or whether this was coming regardless.
Viagogo Launches in the US, Partners with the Cleveland Browns
Viagogo, the European online ticket company, is launching it service in the U.S. It’s announcing the Cleveland Browns as its official secondary ticket partner.
Setting up a network for individuals to buy and sell tickets from each other, viagogo has also partnered with several teams to offer tickets to consumers. The partnership with the Cleveland Browns makes it the first third party company to become an official secondary ticket partner. Looking to make ticket sales more central to fans, leveraging the viagogo community and others like it is becoming more and more appealing to sports franchises and venues to take this approach.
The company has raised more than $50 million in funding, from Index Ventures, LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault, and more. Viagogo was also among the first to have a Facebook application, launching at the f8 Event.
Setting up a network for individuals to buy and sell tickets from each other, viagogo has also partnered with several teams to offer tickets to consumers. The partnership with the Cleveland Browns makes it the first third party company to become an official secondary ticket partner. Looking to make ticket sales more central to fans, leveraging the viagogo community and others like it is becoming more and more appealing to sports franchises and venues to take this approach.
The company has raised more than $50 million in funding, from Index Ventures, LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault, and more. Viagogo was also among the first to have a Facebook application, launching at the f8 Event.
The iPoor Helps Fight Poverty in a Very Funny Way
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The iPoor has been dubbed the real iPhone killer. Created by Steve Nojobs, the iPoor is destined to appeal to all of those folks that couldn’t spring a few hundred bills for the iPhone.
The iPhone looks like a toy, really. It’s got four huge buttons and an easily-breakable plastic shell. And you can’t really call anybody, either.
Is this a joke? Why yes, it is! All in the name of fighting poverty. As a way to raise money for a handful of non-profit organizations looking to help in the battle against poverty, the iPoor is generating enough attention to forward some of that along to raising awareness. Participating organizations include Care.org, thehungersite and kiva.
In case you’re wondering, the iPoor (not its real name) is a toy created by Vtech. Buy one on Amazon for about $9. Need more parodies related to Apple’s favorite Jobs? Check out the Fake Steve blog, written by the now-unveiled Daniel Lyons. If you’re tired of the parody crap and want to support non-profits, try CareBadges or Change.org.
The iPoor has been dubbed the real iPhone killer. Created by Steve Nojobs, the iPoor is destined to appeal to all of those folks that couldn’t spring a few hundred bills for the iPhone.
The iPhone looks like a toy, really. It’s got four huge buttons and an easily-breakable plastic shell. And you can’t really call anybody, either.
Is this a joke? Why yes, it is! All in the name of fighting poverty. As a way to raise money for a handful of non-profit organizations looking to help in the battle against poverty, the iPoor is generating enough attention to forward some of that along to raising awareness. Participating organizations include Care.org, thehungersite and kiva.
In case you’re wondering, the iPoor (not its real name) is a toy created by Vtech. Buy one on Amazon for about $9. Need more parodies related to Apple’s favorite Jobs? Check out the Fake Steve blog, written by the now-unveiled Daniel Lyons. If you’re tired of the parody crap and want to support non-profits, try CareBadges or Change.org.
isayusay Syncs Online & Mobile Address Books and Calendars
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AllFocus has launched MobileLiving isayusay as part of its MobileLiving suite. The isayusay tool lets you access and manage your address book and calendar from your cell phone, synchronizing your online and mobile information.
More than just providing an access point for your contacts, MobileLiving offers easy ways to get to your information, with text message shortcuts and click-to-call features. The text message shortcuts let you search for and receive the information you need without you having to do as much of the work. The click-to-call capability lets you dial a person directly, removing several steps between finding a contact number and making the call.
You can search by a fast search, regular lookups, checklists and a cycle-thru browser. You can also create “quick lists” which are like groups of frequently called contacts, minimizing the amount of scrolling you’ll have to do in order to find what you’re looking for. If you set up your account online prior to adding the service to your mobile phone, your information will automatically load once you’ve registered your cell phone number.
With AllFocus’ attention directed towards creating online-to-mobile solutions, there are a couple other services you can get: a planner, and recipes. Another way to access your contacts from your mobile is with Foonz.
http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/mobileliving-s.png
AllFocus has launched MobileLiving isayusay as part of its MobileLiving suite. The isayusay tool lets you access and manage your address book and calendar from your cell phone, synchronizing your online and mobile information.
More than just providing an access point for your contacts, MobileLiving offers easy ways to get to your information, with text message shortcuts and click-to-call features. The text message shortcuts let you search for and receive the information you need without you having to do as much of the work. The click-to-call capability lets you dial a person directly, removing several steps between finding a contact number and making the call.
You can search by a fast search, regular lookups, checklists and a cycle-thru browser. You can also create “quick lists” which are like groups of frequently called contacts, minimizing the amount of scrolling you’ll have to do in order to find what you’re looking for. If you set up your account online prior to adding the service to your mobile phone, your information will automatically load once you’ve registered your cell phone number.
With AllFocus’ attention directed towards creating online-to-mobile solutions, there are a couple other services you can get: a planner, and recipes. Another way to access your contacts from your mobile is with Foonz.
http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/mobileliving-s.png
The Other Facebook Lawsuit
The high profile ConnectU case isn’t the only legal action being taken against Facebook: a firm in Radnor, Pennsylvania has filed a complaint against the Palo Alto-based company claiming patent infringement. The document, embedded below, is dated July 3, 2007.
The complaint comes from Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, and refers to this patent by “iKimbo, Inc”. We won’t pretend to understand the incomprehensible language of the patent, although we’d welcome your interpretations.
Thanks to IP Law Daily for the tip.
Tabber Launches Version 2.0 With Easy Network Inclusion
Tabber, the profile aggregator, has launched an upgraded version of its service.
One of the more important new features is the modification to the concept of networks, meaning that once you add a network, you can create a specifc Network View for that particular network. This pulls in your data from the profiles of those friends that .are included in this Network View, including their user photos, basic info, links to their outside social networking profiles, and updates in regards to their recent activity. The supported networks include del.icio.us, deviantART, digg, Twitter, MySpace, LiveJournal, Xanga, Last.fm, Flickr and YouTube.
This new functionality makes it much easier to add friends to your Tabber aggregator. It works in a similar way to Wink, where you can add all your friends from any of its supported networks. You won’t need to add your password, so Tabber is actually pulling in contact info based on usernames. This means you can add someone else’s contact list for many of the networks that are supported. That should get your friends list bulked up really fast.
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