Month: November 2010

According to those close to the matter, Google is looking to make a deal on Groupon. We first caught wind of this potential acquisition about 10 days ago. Now, the rumor is that Google is offering Groupon around $5.3 billion with a $700 million earn out. These sources say the deal is more than likely going to succeed and could be complete within a week, possibly even tomorrow.

This could be Google’s biggest acquisition to date. It’s not as if Google can’t afford it, sitting on “more than $33 billion in cash and strong stock.” The deal isn’t just about Google owning a successful local commerce service which dominates the social shopping scene, but about the data they would gain in the acquisition. It always boils down to the data, doesn’t it?

But, if done, it will move the search giant instantly to the top spot in local commerce online and give it huge troves of data about consumer buying habits and merchant information across the globe.

The deal could definitely benefit both sides, especially with Facebook launching their own deals platform.

via All Things D

Verizon has taken advantage of Twitter’s Promoted Trends feature by purchasing the #CyberMonday trending topic. Target made a similar move when they purchased #BlackFriday this past weekend. These trending topics are a great way to get some online traffic from users hitting the web hard looking for the best Cyber Monday deals and search engines like Google and Bing have deep integration with Twitter in their search results.

As with any purchased Promoted Trend on Twitter, when users click on CyberMonday, they will be see a sponsored Tweet from Verizon, which states “Starting today, Verizon’s giving you 24 days of Seasonal Surprises! Unwrap an exclusive deal now!” The Tweet contains a link to the company’s “Seasonal Surprises” campaign, which encourages users to Tweet Verizon’s message or post the message on Facebook to unlock an exclusive deal.

via TechCrunch

For the first time ever, 12 O readers will win a selection of gifts from Oprah’s “Favorite Things” show, which aired on Monday, November 22nd. Oprah’s magazine will launch the second-annual “12-Day Holiday Give-O-Way” sweepstakes, which runs from Nov. 29th to Dec. 10th.

Instructions: Once a day, from November 29 through December 10, you can enter for a chance to win by clicking the link on this page and typing in the appropriate code for that day’on the entry form. Entering each day will increase your chances of winning.

When you visit the official Give-O-Way site (oprah.com/12days), you will see a grid of Foursquare-like badges. Each badge represents one of the 12 days and clicking the badge of the day allows you to enter the code. The codes can be found in the December issue of O Magazine.

Will you be checking in with Oprah?

While Black Friday is still one of the hottest shopping days of the year, online shopping is steadily gaining. On Tuesday, comScore reported an exected 11 percent rise over the 2009 Cyber Monday holiday. Most major retailers are taking advantage of Black Friday momentum and extending it over the entire weekend. Amazon even went as far as starting Black Friday almost a week early. The question is, where do you find the best Cyber Monday deals?

Amazon is still going strong, with limited supply Cyber Monday deals. Apple is also getting into the holiday spirit with Merry Monday deals on iPad, iPod, iPhone, and Mac accessories among other things. Crunchgear reports that Ashford.com is offering five special watch discounts on a some name brand high-end watches via aBlogtoRead.com.

The Next Web has a list of 10 hot gadgets for Cyber Monday shoppers, including the HTC HD7 at Best Buy and the Kodak EasyShare digital camera you’ve seen in the hands of Trey Songz and Drake. Switched brings us a few eye-catching items from the likes of Target, Staples, and Walmart.

Where will you be doing your Cyber Monday shopping?

At a press event yesterday, Acer unveiled the Acer Iconia. The Iconia is unlike most laptops you’ve seen because it features a touch screen where the keyboard is supposed to go. Engadget got hands on with the flashy new tablet/laptop and, while the “screen is clear and the touch functionality is pretty clever,” it looks like the touch keyboard is almost impossible to use. While the laptop looks slick, it took several tries just to pull up a simple website.

The laptop also includes Clear.fi media sharing. It’s a cloud-based system designed to multiple media types over multi-platform devices. This basically means it lets all your gadgets share media with each other. It only works in your home via your router at the moment. Check Engadget for more photos and a video.

Apple has announced a special sale for this coming Black Friday, November 26th.

The special one-day Apple shopping event. November 26.

Come back to the Apple Online Store the day after Thanksgiving for a special one-day-only holiday shopping event. You’ll find dozens of great iPad, iPod, and Mac gifts for everyone on your list.

Mark your calendars now. And until then, get started by browsing the Apple Online Store for great ideas.

In a similar sale last year, Apple dropped prices by around $100 on big ticket items. Not much compared to what you may find elsewhere, but this is Apple we’re talking about.

On a related note, even though iOS 4.2 just came out, the Dev-Team Blog was just updated with a new redsn0w version 0.9.6b4 jailbreak. This update isn’t as easy as visiting a website and you have to be tethered to a computer to re-activate the jailbreak any time your device powers off or reboots. Probably not the best setup for anyone trying to get anything important done.

via Apple – Shopping Event, Engadget

Opera goes to 11 with their latest beta release, now available for download. It includes updates to the mouse gestures feature to add better visual feedback. The extensions introduced in the alpha version of Opera 11 are now included, giving you access to a library of 160 add-ons.

Tab Stacking is the most interesting new feature. We’re all familiar with tabbed browsing by now, but Opera 11 beta is adding a slight twist. In addition to having tabs going across your browser, you can now drop them on top of each other to create a tab stack. This allows you to group tabs together and treat them as one. Check out the video for the details.

via Opera

Google has announced a free software plugin for Microsoft Office that will tie your Google Docs account to Microsoft Office. This gives you access to the power of the cloud while letting you stick with the software you’re used to. The plugin is called Cloud Connect and goes into live preview (sign-up) for Apps for Business customers today. Everyone else should get it soon.

Editing a document in Word? It’ll automatically sync to your Google Docs account each time you hit ‘Save’. Want to share a preview of your document without worrying about what file format your coworkers can open? Just send them a link to the Google Docs file. The plugin supports Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and it’s a big deal for Google’s strategy with Docs.

You may recall that the latest versions of Microsoft Office do embrace the cloud, but that’s only for those on the cutting edge of Office products. For everyone else, Google’s Cloud Connect provides a practical solution as it supports Office 2003, 2007, and 2010. It’s also simpler as there is no SharePoint configuration required. Google also supports Excel, which Microsoft does not yet.

There are a few oddities. For instance, multiple people can edit the same document, but you can’t see the changes in real-time in Office, so there is a possibility for conflict. In any case, it seems like Google will always find a way to get in where they fit in.

What do you think about Google Cloud Connect?

via TechCrunch

Amazon has extended Black Friday into a week-long sale starting today. Instead of waiting until Friday to get trampled at your local retail store, you can jump on Amazon.com right now and find some hot deals. Click fast or you will miss out.

You shouldn’t have to stand in a long line to get a great deal. We’re searching for the best Black Friday deals everywhere–including deals other stores are planning–so we can meet or beat their prices and bring them to you even earlier. These limited-supply offers will go quickly, but we’ll add new ones throughout the day, every day this week, so you can skip the long lines and still save a bundle.

Reviews are mixed. Many customers who were patiently waiting for Black Friday are upset that Amazon has opened the floodgates and started such a deal frenzy. Others are upset because the deals are disappearing so quickly.

In any case, you need to get clicking now before you miss out. New deals will appear throughout the week and Amazon is offering free subscriptions to Amazon Prime for students and parents. This gets you 2-day shipping for free on any order.

via Amazon.com, ReadWriteWeb,ZDNet

Apple’s iOS 4.2 is finally here for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It packs all the features that we’ve covered previously, including: Multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay, and AirPrint. According to the official press release, iOS 4.2 brings over 100 new features to the iPad.

One feature that nobody anticipated in this release is a free Find My Phone service. Previously, this feature was part of Apple’s $99-per-year MobileMe service. Now, all users of iOS 4.2 devices can take advantage of it.

This means that you can now keep tabs on your phone if it gets stolen, or figure out why your significant other isn’t home for dinner yet. To get started, you will need to sign up for a free MobileMe account. Apple may be giving this service away to get more paying MobileMe users, using the Find My Phone service as a gateway.

For Android users, the Lookout application provides a similar service for free.

via Apple’s iOS 4.2 Available Today for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch.

OnLive Cloud Gaming System Coming to Your TV

Remember Web TV? Yeah, me neither, but founder Steve Perlman has moved on to bigger and better things. His startup OnLive Inc. has an online game service that will be available for your TV for the holidays. OnLive will be selling a tiny device called a “micro-console” that hooks up to your TV. It’s tiny because the games are stored remotely and run directly from OnLive’s servers. The controllers look like anything else you might find on an Xbox 360 or PS3 and the system will run you $99 for the holidays.

Anyone who has played games online knows that even a tiny delay can ruin a gaming experience. With the games being stored remotely and the processing done on remote servers, it seems like this service might be even more prone to lag. The concept of a gaming system without having to worry about physical games sounds cool, but it will be interesting to see if this will take off.

via WSJ, OnLive

AOL Mail Gets an Update

This past Sunday, at 12pm Eastern, AOL posted a press release detailing new features for AOL Mail. Who knows why they chose such an odd time for a launch, but they could have been trying to get ahead of the Facebook Social Inbox launch. Why? Because it looks like they’ve launched something similar:

Quick Bar – makes it easy to quickly send emails, instant or text messages and even update Facebook and Twitter via Lifestream directly from the inbox. Smart View – prominently displays important information like maps, attached photos and files, and conversation threads on the right hand side of the inbox so users can see relevant details and files before they even open a message. Email aggregation – makes it is easy to receive and send messages from almost any provider, including GMail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail, right inside your AOL inbox.

Tumblr and 4Chan Go At It

I can only imagine how Tumblr and 4Chan started beefin’ but, on the 14th and 15th of November, they went in on each other. 4Chan’s attack was scheduled for the 14th and Tumblr was scheduled to retaliate on the 15th, but moved it up to counteract the 4Chan attack. Neither site really went down, but there were reports of intermittent outages. As one commentator put it, ” it’s like a drunken slapfight with novelty foam hands.”

via TechCrunch

Apple’s Big iTunes Announcement

After posting a teaser on their website, Apple eventually announced the availability of the Beatles catalog in the iTunes Store. For many, this was a huge let-down. Not because nobody likes the Beatles, but because most people who would have been interested in MP3′s of their music have probably already bought the CD’s and digitized them. The real importance of the announcement really has nothing to do with the music itself, though. Here is why you should care:

Being that the Beatles MP3 holdout is emblematic of the recording industry’s resistance against modern distribution methods, the way in which the Beatles discography will be made available should be telling. Here was a situation in which the labels and distributors have millions of sales at stake, and though to be fair Beatles records have been selling just fine without the benefit of legal downloads over the last decade. The powers that be must know that by agreeing to MP3 distribution, they are shifting the fulcrum. But how far?

The last barriers between old and new distribution are beginning to be dissolved, and the staunchest objectors (in this case, those in charge of the Beatles discography) are being forced to act.

via CrunchGear

Need a Job? Google is Hiring

After just giving every employee a raise, Google is now looking for over 2,000 new employees. This comes after 20 acquisitions which have brought Google up to around 23,000 employees. About half of the positions are in the US and most seem to be full-time positions. They are listed on Google’s website.

The world’s largest Internet search engine, whose finance chief told investors in September that the Internet industry was waging a “war for talent,” has job openings listed for 2,076 positions on its website, according to a Reuters tally on Thursday.

via Reuters

According to Kara Swisher, Google is sniffing around local deal-of-the-day site, Groupon. Yahoo made a similar move a while ago, but the acquisition never happened. Sources say prices being considered are well above the $2 and $3 billion that was on the table from Yahoo.

But sources cautioned that the talks are not complete, and could also end up without any result, as the Yahoo discussions did.

In an email, a Google spokesperson said with some style: “Per usual, we don’t comment on rumor or speculation. If we did we’d be busy 24/7!”

A Groupon spokesperson was also sassy, noting: “Thanks for the heads-up!”

Groupon’s revenues are reportedly above $50 million a month. There is no reason they need to offer up any kind of discount. There are few companies who could afford to buy them: Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, and (of course) Google.

Henry Blodget says “Hell, Yes!” Google should buy Groupon. He also believes they should pick up Twitter and Foursquare. Primary motivations being that Google has money in the bank and paper stacked to the ceiling. Even if they were to buy these companies and they all went belly up, Google wouldn’t even notice.

With Google being interested in social and not having much success creating these tools internally, maybe acquisition is the answer.

Firecore has announced an update to their software suite for the latest Apple TV that adds Last.fm and a web browser. Called aTV Flash (black), the software aims enhances your Apple TV experience.

The latest version includes a wireless installer which gets your Apple TV set up to download additional apps and updates. Couch Surfer, probably the most interesting addition, is currently a basic web browser and the team is “striving to enable support for more advanced web plugins.”

This latest beta, which should be available in 1-2 weeks, also includes support for Last.fm streaming.

via 9 to 5 Mac

Chad Ochocinco, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver, partnered with Rock Software to release the iOS game “Mad Chad.” It became available for download today and has already become the top paid app in the iTunes App Store.

As Adam Fusfeld of BI puts it, this “further cements Ochocinco’s status as the most web-friendly athlete.” He is prolific on Twitter (@ogochocinco) and had to pay for it. Apparently, he is also really good at COD Black Ops, which might explain why he has a game of his own.