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Gap, H&M, and others welcome Wrapp’s awesome social gift cards to the U.S.
April 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment
After finding success in Sweden and across Europe for its effort to revitalize the gift card industry, Wrapp is finally launching in the U.S. today. And to prove it’s serious, the company has more than 25 retailers signed up to use the service, including Gap, H&M, and Sephora. Wrapp’s mobile and web service allows you to buy gift cards for friends through Facebook, which can be redeemed via the Wrapp mobile app in stores. The company offers a few unique twists on the gift card paradigm: Once a gift card is purchased, your Facebook friends can easily add more funds to it, and Wrapp also offers free gift cards as part of targeted retailer campaigns. Wrapp gift cards can only be redeemed via smartphones, but that also means you’ll never really … Read entire article »
Filed under: Social Network News
Nokia to dump world’s most ridiculous luxury-phone brand, Vertu, for $265M
April 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment
Troubled phone-maker Nokia is attempting to unload its luxury mobile-phone brand, Vertu, for a reported $265 million (€200 million), the Financial Times is reporting. Nokia is being advised by Goldman Sachs on the deal and is currently in talks to sell the brand to private equity group Permira. For the baller who has everything but an iPhone, the bespoke Vertu phones are handmade in England and are rumored to smell like Italian leather, 50-year-old whiskey, and freshly showered butlers. The phones are made from the finest materials such as stainless steel, carbon fiber, and titanium. They are tricked out with exotic leathers (calf, ostrich, and alligator), precious metals (gold, platinum), and of course, rubies and diamonds. The London Symphony Orchestra makes all the Vertu ringtones, and it takes 15 days for … Read entire article »
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15 tips to get the most out of an incubator or accelerator
April 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment
Before signing up for your local startup accelerator or incubator, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Is your pitch perfected? Does it matter which group you join? Is there a right or wrong time to sign up? We asked these fifteen entrepreneurs for their nuggets of advice on navigating the world of startup accelerators. Do your research to find the right fit You should do your homework on any accelerator you’re considering. What do they offer? What are some of their success stories? What happens to companies that don’t succeed? How often do their teams get funded? Depending on the accelerator you join, you’ll get very different answers to those questions. Make sure to not only talk to the accelerator but also past companies, both successful and not. Jason … Read entire article »
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Apple and Google potential additions to Dow Jones index
April 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has featured the same 30, large publicly traded companies since 2009. The stock market landscape has shifted significantly in the past three years, and now big tech companies like Google and Apple could be considered for a spot on the elite list, according to business publication Barron’s. Taking on fresh blood would mean kicking out a few other companies to make room. Barron’s says the top three candidates would be Bank of America, Alcoa, and Hewlett-Packard. Deciding what companies are included is more complicated than picking the high-priced stock or most valuable company in the world. When choosing companies, the Dow looks at the absolute price of shares. Currenty, Apple and Google’s high share prices would throw off the index giving them a significant larger amount of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Social Network News
How low-end smartphones could democratize education in rural China
April 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment
Roughly 70 percent of China’s population lives in rural areas. This also means that more than 70 percent of China’s students live in rural areas, making up some 160 million students of compulsory-education age. With the rapid decline of the price of smartphones to sub-$80, there is a huge opportunity to distribute and democratize education to China’s poorest and largest population. Armed with an arsenal of educational applications, smartphones have the capability to be powerful learning tools. Between 2003 and 2007, the Distance Education Project for Rural Schools (DEPRS) was implemented by the Chinese government to improve the quality of basic education in rural areas of China, especially in the poorer western provinces. It has been referred to as “the largest ICT project in the world up to now” because “it … Read entire article »
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Nintendo ends its apathy toward online-services
April 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment
Japanese video game publisher Nintendo recently suffered its first annual loss. The yen’s value hurt in the $460 million loss, but it didn’t help that Nintendo wasn’t adjusting to the times. No part of its business model better exemplified this inability to adapt than its woeful online presence. How are the people who brought us friend codes supposed to compete in a world with Apple’s iPhone? How Nintendo adapts to the internet is critical to its future in the increasingly-web-connected game market. And so it is interesting that the Kyoto-based game maker may finally be ready to figure out this whole internet thing. According to the same financial report in which Nintendo announced its record loss, it revealed that 70 percent of all 3DS units sold have been connected to the … Read entire article »
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Shadowrun Returns raises $1.8M in Kickstarter campaign
April 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment
Game developer Harebrained Schemes scored $1.8 million from more than 36,000 backers for Shadowrun Returns, the sequel to a fan-favorite cyberpunk role-playing game. This has become one of the most successful crowd-funding campaigns on Kickstarter, which has become a huge platform for raising money for independent games. The fundraiser, headed by game veteran Jordan Weisman, closed its 30-day run tonight. It beat its original goal of raising $400,000 in little more than a day. Now Harebrained Schemes will be able to bring this sequel to tablets and PCs. The success comes on the heels of successful Kickstarter campaigns by developers Tim Schafer and Brian Fargo. The final tally from 36,276 donors is $1,836,447. Lately, a growing trend among mid-sized developers is to fund projects through Kickstarter. What previously may have been beyond the … Read entire article »
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Nvidia launches $999 graphics card with the world’s fastest gaming performance
April 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment
Nvidia is seeking to extend its lead as the frontrunner in PC-gaming graphics today with the launch of its first dual-chip Kepler graphics card. Jen-Hsun Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, made the announcement of the GeForce GTX 690 graphics card at the Nvidia Games Festival in Shanghai, where more than 6,000 gamers are attending the event. The GTX 690 has two of Nvidia’s most powerful graphics chips based on the codenamed Kepler graphics architecture. The card has an exotic look with an exterior frame made from trivalent chromium-plated aluminum. It has a fan housing made from thixomolded magnesium alloy, and it delivers high performance with lower power using a heavy-duty but efficient power supply. The GTX 690 has 3,072 Nvidia CUDA cores, which can handle both graphics and non-graphics processing tasks. The card … Read entire article »
Filed under: Social Network News
Apple saves billions in taxes through very creative accounting, says NYT
April 30th, 2012 | Add a Comment
As one of the most profitable companies in the world, it’s hard not to think that Apple would try to reduce its taxes wherever possible. But according to a detailed report today by the New York Times, the company is going to extreme lengths to avoid taxes — so much so that it’s pioneered accounting techniques that many others have followed. For example, Apple has opened a subsidiary in Reno, Nevada — cheekily named Braeburn Capital — to collect the company’s profits, as well as invest them. Nevada offers a corporate tax rate of zero, while California’s is 8.84 percent, so the subsidiary allows Apple to legally able to avoid millions in taxes to California. Of course, Apple isn’t alone with its tax avoidance methods. But just as with the New York … Read entire article »
Filed under: Social Network News
This Stunning Electric Bike Is Like a Jet Fighter On Two Wheels [Desired]
April 29th, 2012 | Add a Comment
Filed under: Social Network Privacy
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