http://www.megite.com Megite is the newspaper for anyone interested in what's happening right now by intelligently uncovering the most relevant items from auto discovered news sites and weblogs. Copyright 2009, Megite 30 Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:00:36 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_1 f2eab9f9ee834f0db77d8a3b0c87e43f Apparently, like everyone else, the Seattle Times is very interested in trying to figure out what to actually use Google Wave for. But while most are trying to use it for either fun , realtime chats, movie reenactments , or inner-business workings, the Seattle Times have tasked Wave with a larger goal: Catching a killer. This public Google Wave ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:31:34 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_2 7a13b05844eb9adaf7d99dc270a4dcc8 Apple has long been rumored to integrate video conferencing capabilities in the iPhone, and most expected Skype to incorporate such a feature in its free application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices sooner or later, but Israel's fring is first to actually do it . Big caveat for starters: the camera on the iPhone 3GS is located on the back, ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:17:14 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_3 780f2b79999089d3913abc2fedaeff25 Cyber Monday might have turned out to be better than expected. Online retailers saw a 13.7 percent increase in sales compared to last year, and 24.1 percent more than on Black Friday 2009. The latest data comes from Coremetrics , a Web analytics service used by more than 500 retailers including Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works, ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:13:49 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_4 a1919f8468d1a6e68ecd9132a1fa75f3 [UK] Ipadio has announced that its live phonecasting service - not dissimilar to AudioBoo - will be utilized by a newly launched Facebook app as part of Sport England's campaign to get more people to play sport in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics. The new Facebook tool, dubbed ‘Community Sport Hub’, enables sports governing bodies to " ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:40:23 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_5 30000dc052f39272bf5f49867d1da6fd Taiwan-headquartered Foxconn , the world's largest electronics manufacturer, will launch up to 10,000 consumer electronics retail stores in China, says China Daily . Until now they have not had a significant retail brand or presence. What will they sell? Probably some of the many products that they build for well known brands, including the ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:15:52 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_6 8565031bb1f070e7d08f84d4d0fea8fe It's interesting that Channel 4, a UK public sector broadcaster has set up an investment fund to back startups. It's even more interesting that the 4iP fund will tomorrow announce seven new investments totaling $830,000 as part of its mission to kick-start new investment in public service-oriented digital media. This is a bit like PBS investing ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:00:36 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_7 72d773119000732568c081b0ab672b1b Startup Genieo, which develops personalized home pages, has raised $3 million in seed funding from undisclosed investors. Genieo's technology automatically discovers the user’s topics of interest when they are browsing and generates a personal home-page with relevant content and personalized news widgets. A desktop application, Genieo maps and ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:46:03 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_8 eb571efe45b6c45e6f0b78e75d3f3b4a [UK] As the saying goes, there are no original ideas - only original people. It's this concept that drives the latest music-related startup to come out of London's ' Silicon Roundabout ', that concentration of tech startups around the Old Street area. WhoSampled.com has been in public beta for a year, and officially launches today. Founded by ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:19:29 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_9 1f77d66a7a3c038339a4bd5f4e780af2 Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:11:15 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_10 315a47df73b0924e701f25093bb7587b More and more startups are finally focusing on real business models, ones that are based on actually selling a product or service. For money, you know. The irony is that many get pretty far down the development path before realizing that adding billing infrastructure to their offering may not be as simple as integrating with PayPal's API. ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:47:41 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_11 307cce92f4786d0c531754762be46ab5 The 3rd annual Crunchies Awards , co-hosted with GigaOm and VentureBeat , honor the startups, products and entrepreneurs in the tech scene today. There are 18 award categories, any any company can be nominated, but it will be of interest to European startups that they have a good chance if they nominate themselves in "Best International StartUp". (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:39:40 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_12 5f0170911a6e1b436f3c107212551638 [Sweeden] Oskar Stål has joined Spotify as its new CTO after the departure of the original CTO Andreas Ehn, who left to pursue his own startup. I guess people slightly forget that next year Spotify is actually going to be 4 years old, even though it only launched publicly at the end of last year. (Long time in private beta). Stål comes from ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:03:23 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_13 4b4078b338d09ec71a5ec0c0aa66dd82 BillShrink , the startup that looks to help users save money across verticals including cell phones, credit cards, and savings accounts, has just announced that it has grown to 1 million members since its launch in April 2008. Alongside the milestone, the site is also announcing that it has found "$1 billion in savings on everyday bills". That ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:17:20 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_14 e834fd567cf03f916dc7c32e6d2462d9 Of the hundreds of companies I meet in any given country, I only write about a handful. Sometimes it’s the ones that seem to be copying a US idea, but in reality are building their company in a completely unique—and frequently more profitable—way. Other times, I’m captivated by an idea that’s perfect for an emerging market , but ... (Read on Source) ]]> Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:00:57 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_15 8b6ee510582953f91b2466bbefd52310 If you're going to leave your job at TechCrunch , you better have a good reason. I think Mark Hendrickson actually may have had one. Hendrickson left TechCrunch in March. After about two years of writing and doing development for TC, he got the startup itch. He formed a company, Worldly Developments , and along with co-founder Jay Marcyes is now ... (Read on Source) ]]> Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:43:08 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_16 0167de6039ed4388e516045509bad1ba With the rise of Twitter, we've also seen the rise of link shorteners (standard URLS take up too many characters). The king of the link shorteners right now is bit.ly , which is the default shortener on Twitter and accounts for more than 75 percent of all short URLs on the service. Every month, bit.ly shortens about 1 billion links. For spammers, (Read on Source) ]]> Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:22:21 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_17 efcc228d6d6249c815a0b8a163f1824e So this is funny. Yes, Twitter is having downtime issues right now. Yes, again. But that's nothing new , obviously. What is new is that Twitter being down has also apparently borked the site many people use to check if Twitter is down, downforeveryoneorjustme . While the site, made by Ryan King, is working for every other site on the web, the ... (Read on Source) ]]> Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:09:14 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_18 ff3cc94ea06e92a491d1748160011277 San Francisco based Eventbrite went prime time earlier this month when they raised $6.5 million from Sequoia Capital, and added partner Roelof Botha to their board of directors. We had a chance to sit down with Botha as well as founders Kevin Hartz and Julia Hartz and talk to them about their business and the fundraising. We were supposed to ... (Read on Source) ]]> Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:20:07 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_19 a4c07e95a7a0b103261f11c48b0814c6 Rumors were swirling that IBM would be acquiring database security company Guardium after the Israeli financial newspaper, TheMarker, reported the acquisition yesterday (translated version here ). Big Blue has officially confirmed to TechCrunch that it has acquired Guardium but did not disclose financial terms. TheMarker reported that IBM is ... (Read on Source) ]]> Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:00:08 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/1#item_20 56a4e92259c23d559f1d23068223ed96 [UK] There were some interesting panel discussion today at the NOAH conference - a new event in London aimed at presented tech companies to the private equity and banking sector - but the plethora of suited and booted attendees were shocked out of their chairs a little when Klaus Hommels, (one of the first angel investors in Skype, QXL and XING ... (Read on Source) ]]> Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:57:46 +0000 http://www.megite.com/techcrunch1/1259686013/21#item_1 b15c236291546304ae8d3e08fd6e6139 [France] A commercial court in Paris has fined eBay €1.7 million euros (roughly £1.6 million) for allegedly not sticking to an injunction banning users from selling on products of luxury goods conglomerate Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH in short). Allowing the LVMH perfumes and cosmetics to be purchased by Frenchmen on its French and UK ... (Read on Source) ]]>