April 6th, 2012
Firewall and computer security company Palo Alto Networks plans to raise $ 175 million in a public offering, according to papers published today by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Palo Alto Networks has become popular because it allows chief information officers to block only parts of online applications — such as social networks — and take more control over what employees are using. “Bring your own device” is a growing trend that makes this even more crucial, although right now only minority of employees are bringing in their own tools to work. But when it comes to web applications, such as Dropbox, Facebook, and Twitter, a lot of companies are outright blocking the programs in order to encourage “productivity.” What CIOs don’t realize is that much business is being transferred from the golf course to the social network, while employees are finding their own tools for getting work done. Blocking these avenues for nontraditional productivity is actually detrimental.
This is where Palo Alto Networks comes in. The company’s technology has a way to block only parts of an application, as opposed to completely cutting it off. That is to say, a company might let its employees use Facebook for status updates and content sharing, but block the chat function. The PAN firewall can also block actions, such as attaching files, so confidential information isn’t leaked outside company servers.
In total, the company would like to raise $ 175 million, it has not listed how many shares will be available. Palo Alto took in $ 118.6 million in revenue for 2011, which was 143 percent higher than that of 2010. Sixty-two percent of its business comes from customers in North America, followed by Europe.
The company hasn’t stated exactly how many shares it is offering, or what the valuation of the company will be. However, the filing indicates that about 46,138,202 shares will be outstanding after the offering.
hat tip TechCrunch; Firewall via Shutterstock
Filed under: VentureBeat 
VentureBeat
$175M, Alto, files, firewall, Networks, Palo, public, want, worth
Entertainment | No Comments »
April 5th, 2012
After months of devastating setbacks, wireless network startup LightSquared is considering filing for bankruptcy, according to founder and hedge fund manager Philip Falcone on Wednesday.
Falcone, who’s Harbinger Capital Partners is majority owner of the wireless startup, said bankruptcy could help salvage LightSquared by providing more time to deal with its many problems, reports Reuters.
LightSquared’s business strategy involved building out a high-speed wireless network that would generate revenue by selling network access to outside companies, such as Walmart, Best Buy, and others.
Back in February, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rejected LightSquared’s plans to launch its LTE network due to concerns that it would interfere with both commercial and military GPS technology. Because of this development, Leap Wireless has decided to buy future LTE connectivity for its Cricket prepaid service from Clearwire, another troubled wireless company (of which Sprint is the largest stakeholder). Earlier this year, LightSquared client FreedomPop also decided to go with Clearwire.
But by far the biggest setback for LightSquared came in March after its $ 9 billion 15-year agreement with Sprint-Nextel to build and host its LTE network fell through.
The startup reported a $ 427 million net loss in the first three quarters of 2011, which intensified due to missed deadlines of its network build out. LightSquared’s creditors are currently debating whether to default on a $ 1.6 billion loan, according to the report.
Filing for bankruptcy, Falcone said, wouldn’t necessarily wipe out the startup’s equity holders, who could leverage its highly valuable portion of wireless spectrum.
At this point, it seems overwhelmingly obvious that the dream of LightSquared is dead. All of the startup’s major clients have terminated their agreements. Its network is essentially worthless due to GPS interference as well as a vote of no confidence from federal regulators. And now, Falcone and the other LightSquared owners are theorizing about ways to recuperate a portion of the massive losses – not how to resurrect the company.
Broken lightbulb photo via Realinemedia/Shutterstock
Filed under: deals, mobile 
VentureBeat
bankruptcy, considers, filing, Lights, LightSquared, Startup
Entertainment | No Comments »
April 3rd, 2012
The Tap Lab has raised $ 550,000 to finance mobile games that are layered on top of real-world locations. The idea is to create experiences that “extend beyond the edge of our screens and into reality.”
Investors include the founding team of Harmonix, Alex Rigopoulos and Eran Egozy, who are the creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Others include Google’s Don Dodge, Mike Dornbrook of Common Angels, and other angel financiers.
Cambridge, Mass.-based The Tap Lab has spent the last year building a real-world game engine, much like Red Robot Labs’ R2, for location-based games. The Tap Lab’s first release that will take advantage of this effort is TapCity 2, which launches this summer.
Co-founders Dave Bisceglia and Ralph Shao started The Tap Lab in 2010 after graduating from Boston University in May 2009. The company was a member of the last graduating class of TechStars Boston. As part of that effort, they created their original TapCity multiplayer mobile game, where you build and defend a virtual city based on the places you visit in real life.
Much like the original Booyah game, it is a lot like playing Monopoly in the real world, where you can own various locations. TapCity 2 will let players virtually explore the entire world. Players earn points from completing tasks at the real locations and purchasing virtual versions of real products in those venues in the game.
“We believe there is so much more to location-based gaming beyond the check-in,” Bisceglia, chief executive, said. “There is an enormous opportunity to create games that invite players to compete and collaborate in the real world.”
Dodge said he was interested because The Tap Lab is focused on mobile, social, local, and games. TapCity 2 won the South by Southwest AppCircus competition last month, and it will show off the new game at PAX East in Boston.
Rivals include Booyah, Red Robot Labs, Grey Area Labs, and PerBlue. The latter is launching its own new game this week dubbed Parallel Mafia.
“We think that location-based gaming is more interesting in the real world,” Bisceglia said in an interview with VentureBeat. “We are diving deeper by categorizing bars, restaurants, clubs and other places. We stylized a virtual venue and give players jobs based on what that place is.”
The company has five employees, and it plans on adding more. The Tap Lab is focusing on iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) for now. Bisceglia said that the original game and prototypes have taught the company what works and what doesn’t. The encouraging part was that the active users played the game for 25 minutes a day or more.
[Image credits: The Tap Lab and Kevin Rooney]
GamesBeat 2012 is VentureBeat’s fourth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. This year we’re calling on speakers from the hottest mobile, social, PC, and console companies to debate new ways to stay on pace with changing consumer tastes and platforms. Join 500+ execs, investors, analysts, entrepreneurs, and press as we explore the gaming industry’s latest trends and newest monetization opportunities. The event takes place July 10-11 in San Francisco, and you can get your early-bird tickets here.
Filed under: games, mobile, social, VentureBeat 
VentureBeat
$550K, fund, games, locationbased, Mobile, raises
Entertainment | No Comments »
April 1st, 2012
Here’s a roundup of the tech or game-related April Fools jokes of the day. Did you get fooled by any of these?
Conan O’Brien buys Mashable and boots out Pete Cashmore.
Sony comes up with the world’s smallest Ultrabook. Its screen size is three-fourths of an inch by 1.25 inches.
Virgin Volcanic will take you to the center of the Earth. Richard Branson will let you go first.
Google launches Maps 8-bit for Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy.
Reddit introduced Reddit Timeline to let you travel through time and participate in conversations from the old days.
Smashwords Weed service was aimed at creating common ailments for writers.
Twilio unveiled Twilio Telegram, for communication via horse power.
TechCrunch launches TechCrunch Drama channel.
Big Fish Games created a faux game called Mime Something, where you use hand gestures to mime puzzle clues.
And there’s the Assassin’s Creed for Kinect (pictured at top), where you can dive onto your floor as you pretend you’re diving off a 10-story building.
Notch, the creator of Minecraft, is now working on Mars Effect.
Flickr Dither will recreate your photos with the dot-based look.
The Daily Dot dove into the social sharing business via CorkMarket, in competition with Pinterest.
Nintendo and Hasbro team up to create Super Smash Bronies.
Animoto announced a new video creation service Animoto for Dogs where the dogs can tell you how they really feel about you.
And we wish that OMGPOP chief executive Dan Porter’s tweet about his “weakest” employee was just a bad April Fool’s joke. But alas, it was not.
Filed under: games, VentureBeat 
VentureBeat
April, Fool’s, gags, gamerelated, Roundup, tech
Entertainment | No Comments »
March 31st, 2012
The studio that created the SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALS video games has shut down after 17 years. In a tweet, Zipper Interactive, a Redmond, Wash.-based console game studio owned by Sony, announced that it had shut down.
“After 17 years it’s time to head off into the sunset. A sincere thank you to all of our fans for everything you’ve done for us. Farewell.” Zipper had about 80 employees.
The rumors of the closing started circulating last week. At the time, reports said that the studio had a project canceled and was undergoing layoffs. Sony said a statement that it did not comment on rumors. Zipper’s last official game, Unit 13, debuted on the PlayStation Vita earlier this month. The company had some bad luck with its last SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALS game, which debuted in April, 2011. That happened just as Sony shut down the PlayStation Network after a hacker attack.
That crippled the SOCOM game’s multiplayer play. Zipper also made MAG, a huge action online game for the PlayStation 3.
Filed under: games 
VentureBeat
after, closes, Interactive, SOCOM, Sony, studio, tweet, years, Zipper
Entertainment | No Comments »
March 29th, 2012
Today, lots of mobile applications help tired city-dwellers flag down cabs. But Hailo, London’s cab app company, is picking up passengers by focusing on the drivers. Accel Partners noticed and gave the company a $ 17 million first round of funding to make cabbies happy.
“In London where competition has been intense, Hailo seems to have emerged by all accounts as the clear leader,” said Adam Valkin, a partner with Accel Partners, in an interview with VentureBeat. “They have done this by … aggregating the largest network of cabs (by far) — 3,000 in just a few months.”
London-based Hailo doesn’t require the cabbie install any hardware. Instead, it creates two separate, connected mobile applications — one for the driver and one for the customer. The passenger app is fairly standard. It lets a person request a cab, choose a form of payment (cash or credit), counts down until the cab arrives, and asks the passenger to rate the experience. Co-founder and chief executive Jay Bregman, however, believes the driver’s app is the real reason they’re in the money.
“The taxi market is the quintessential mobile app. You’re mobile, they’re mobile,” said Bregman in an interview with VentureBeat. “No one has been able to make big networks of cabs without having the customers. [Drivers are] using this [app] even when there aren’t any customers because the app helps them.”
Bregman says Hailo only fills 20 percent of a driver’s roster in a day, but the built-in tools attract cabbies to use it even in downtime. This includes the ability to communicate with other Hailo cabbies through the app, create a personal log book to set financial goals each week, and share information about traffic with each other. Indeed, hotel pick-up lines, or places where an accident has been reported, are outfitted with a geo-fence. The app knows when a cabbie has entered that area and is prompted to rate if there is business there.
Hailo obviously isn’t alone, though. Companies like Get Taxi and Uber, the high-end car service app, are entering Hailo’s territory in the U.K. Bregman, however, describes calling Uber a competitor like calling a bus a competitor.
“Uber, by the way, is a fantastic service for the one percent of people who can afford it,” he said. “In San Francisco, Uber works well because the taxi market is so highly dysfunctional.”
Uber, which rents out town cars and offers them to passengers for a markup over the meter price, has boomed in places like San Francisco where hailing a cab on your own is nearly impossible. Hailo makes its money addressing the broader market of cabs already on the road, and takes a transaction fee on credit card purchases.
“I don’t really understand where they fit into the infrastructure in London,” Bergman said of Uber’s move to the rainy city. Investor Valkin stays safe and predicts, “Time will tell.”
Like Uber, Hailo will spend money on Olympics-focused marketing, though Bregman says there’s already a lot of confusion about how the Olympics will work in London this summer. He suspects cabs will leave town instead of braving the traffic. Hailo will mainly use the funding to expand internationally, first to Dublin, Ireland. It will then hire general managers for future international locations and continue expanding.
Hailo currently has around 15 percent of the 23,000 available cabs in London. Investors include Accel Partners, Wellington Partners, and Atomico. The app is available on both iPhone and Android.
Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat 
VentureBeat
$17M, Accel, Another, down, from, gets, Hailo, hand, partners
Entertainment | No Comments »
March 28th, 2012
The top 100 publications in Apple’s iOS Newsstand generate about $ 70,000 per day, according to a new study released today from research firm Distimo.
Apple first released its Newsstand back in October as a new feature for iOS 5. The Newsstand is basically a store that allows people to buy digital versions of magazines and newspapers that are optimized for the iPad and (to a lesser extent) the iPhone/iPod touch. The Newsstand is displayed as a unique folder on the iOS home screen, meaning you can’t really ignore it. And much like the App Store, Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all Newsstand sales.
The study said most of the revenue generated daily is from in-app purchases from U.S. customers. The New York Times, News Corp.’s The Daily and the New Yorker are among some of the top publications raking in money. News apps as a whole account for seven percent of the top 200 highest grossing apps, according to the study.
Not long after the Newsstand launched, several of the big magazine publishers were gushing about the boost in sales. For example, after reporting a 268 percent uptick in revenue, Conde Nast revised its digital strategy to put a greater focus on the Newsstand.
Do you use the iOS Newsstand to read your magazines and newspapers? Let us know in the comments.
Filed under: media, mobile, VentureBeat 
VentureBeat
$70K, Apple’s, generates, Newsstand, says, study
Entertainment | No Comments »
March 26th, 2012
Streaming music service MOG has just released a brand-new app for the iPad, a curious move for a company rumored to be in talks to sell itself to Taiwanese device manufacturer HTC.
Although MOG serves up a great streaming music product relative to its peers, it hasn’t attracted as much buzz as Spotify or as many paying customers as long-time player Rhapsody. It’s this position as a smaller player fighting a tough fight that has likely pushed the company to pursue the option of being acquired by HTC-owned Beats Audio. HTC was rumored to be launching its own streaming service, but MOG, with its deals already in place, might be an easier fit.
The new MOG iPad app takes stylistic cues from the service’s website and iPhone application. Features include the option to listen to music in a higher audio quality than its peers at 320 kbps, unlimited downloads of songs for offline play, music recommendations, personalized radio stations based on artists you like, high-resolution album art, Airplay support, and more.
To get access to the service on the iPad, you must pay for a $ 10-per-month subscription. Additionally, MOG offers a free ad-supported version of the service on the web, an ad-free $ 4.99 per month web-only subscription, and an ad-free option for web and mobile access at $ 10 per month.
Check out more screenshots from MOG’s iPad app below:
Filed under: media, mobile 
VentureBeat
debut, finally, iPad, makes, rumored, selling
Entertainment | No Comments »
March 24th, 2012
Marketers have been increasingly enamored with the power of “Big Data,” and Washington has clearly taken notice. If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard the growing buzz around consumer privacy, such as “Do Not Track,” let me quickly get you up to speed.
The proliferation and love of Big Data
We all know that people are interacting online and sharing content with friends, “Liking” their favorite brands, and clicking on interactive ads on a larger scale than they could have years ago. Naturally, this shift has provided publisher and marketer brands an opportunity to better understand who their readers and consumers are, and how to reach them in the most relevant and effective way.
As a result of the massive volume of online interactions, today’s marketers — as well as what we might call “Big Data Architects” such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, Quantcast, and now my firm, 33Across — have various forms of anonymous and registered data on billions of users around the world as a guiding resource. While this has garnered a lot of Washington attention, what gets publishers and marketers even more nervous (trust me) is the prospect of losing access to the rich data derived from social engagement, influence, and interest—perhaps the most advanced form of social research known to man.
Without these insights, we undoubtedly risk a much dreaded regression back to the pre-social targeting days of arbitrarily placed, blinking, monkey ads. (This was not that long ago, so I’m sure we can all recall how painful that was.)
Big Data is at an inflection point
Make no mistake: there is a grave concern that the Federal Government will make potentially devastating changes to our industry. The growing interest and tsunami of national media coverage around Do Not Track speaks to the need to make sure users’ privacy is protected, as well as to give them easy access to see and opt-out of how they are tracked online. These initiatives are top of mind for the FTC, which is looking to groups like the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), for example, as a forum to discuss these issues.
Data has become the lifeblood for researchers and brands that want to understand peoples’ attributes and online behavior. And, if we don’t provide users with adequate control over their online privacy; government will. Let’s not let it get to that point.
Integrity-driven data
We’ve heard about the flap over Path uploading phone address books to its servers without first getting users’ permission, and how Google side-stepped privacy cookie settings to track users for ad serving. These glaring missteps have sadly cast a dark shadow over our entire industry and misrepresented how data is universally used. This type of conduct is bad for consumers and brands alike. If we don’t adequately regulate ourselves and address public privacy concerns in a more transparent, aggressive manner, it’s only a matter of time before our government imposes legislation. As we all know, government regulation could prove far more severe than if we were to take action on our own.
As an industry, the faster we progress towards heightened responsibility, the better. Consumers should not have to ask for greater control over the ways in which ads are targeted to them, but instead should be assured that privacy standards are high and consistent with the FTC’s principles. By implementing multiple solutions to ensure safe data handling, publishers and brands can promote accountability at every stage of interaction — from consumer notification to internal data management.
Dr. Drew Data Intervention
Now, here’s the good news. There are already several active organizations that are taking the appropriate steps on our behalf to provide a greater level of transparency and control to consumers. Leading the way are organizations such as the NAI, IAB, AAAAs, AAF, ANA, BBB, and DMA. These groups are making concerted efforts to protect businesses and consumers with legally-sound, self-regulatory programs. These organizations stand at the forefront of numerous privacy and educational initiatives, acting as both a global informants and full-service compliance platforms.
Lessons learned from our friends overseas
Political interventions on online advertising have already fundamentally changed the Internet user experience by prompting users to opt-out on every page, as seen in some European countries. Not only is it remarkably annoying, this new dynamic disrupts the natural online experience, but more importantly, it compels people to question whether they should navigate to the Web site of a smaller, less familiar publisher or brand. We could potentially be left with a homogenous Web, in which we default to browsing only on the sites of the largest companies. Doing so would undoubtedly cripple the efforts of smaller businesses and diverse information sources—to the detriment of our field that thrives on innovation, accessibility, and entrepreneurialism.
Data is a huge driver of our economy
Furthermore, we shouldn’t systematically dismantle one of the only industries that has successfully endured the tumultuous financial crisis and continues to keep many global economies afloat with its steady hiring streak.
According to IAB, digital advertising revenues in the United States were $ 7.88 billion for the third quarter of 2011, a 22 percent increase over the same period in 2010. Needless to say, innumerable jobs would be put on the line of fire—a risk that no one in 2012 wishes to take. In fact, few of us could stand where we are today if such a restrictive structure existed. Simply put, in our current economic climate, we literally and figuratively cannot afford to let advertising be 100% regulated by those who do not understand it as intimately as those who have built it.
Get your house in order
Whether you are a staunch supporter of consumer rights, universal access to free content, passionate about supporting our global economy, or all of the above, now is the time to put your privacy practices under a microscope.
Every digital advertiser and Big Data Architect should implement the highest level of privacy standards and publicly display the industry’s commitment to both privacy and growth of our increasingly innovative field. Now is the time to crawl out from under the rock and conduct ourselves with an unequivocal focus on consumer respect and privacy, alongside a fantastic online media experience. This issue is critical and timely; everything in our capacity must be done to meet consumer and governmental expectations.
By giving consumers greater control of their online privacy, we likewise ensure that we retain the right to flourish one of the fastest, most successful industries in history.
Image via Rob Pongsajapan/Flickr
Matt Arkin is the President of 33Across. Most recently, he served as Chief Revenue Officer for Sojern, and previously headed sales and operations at TACODA for three years.
Filed under: VentureBeat 
VentureBeat
beginning, marketing’s, nightmare, nirvana, this, Washington
Entertainment | No Comments »
March 23rd, 2012
Apple owes $ 1.2 million to Italian consumers after losing an appeal in the country’s court today, accused of misleading customers into unnecessarily buying its AppleCare service.
AppleCare is Apple’s warranty program, which extends a product’s insurance coverage to two years, in conjunction the company’s complimentary one year coverage. It not only gives customers a guarantee that their products will be repaired if damaged, but also provides special customer help lines for those dealing with hardware. In some cases, the help lines do cover software issues as well. The cost for the plan varies by product type, but can range from $ 99 to $ 349. The problem? European Union law already states that consumers will be given a two-year warranty on their gadgets gratis.
According to The Next Web, the Italian court denied Apple’s appeal, saying the company used an “unfair trade practice” to make consumers believe they had to purchase a warranty that is already theirs by law. As a part of the judgement, Apple will also have to change the wording on its AppleCare package to inform customers of this legislation — making the paid-for service seem unnecessary.
Apple can still re-appeal the decision, however. It will not be forced to make the packaging changes in 90 days, a time frame defined prior to this most recent appeal decision.
via The Next Web
Filed under: VentureBeat 
VentureBeat
$1.2M, Apple, customers, Italy, misleading
Entertainment | No Comments »