Category: News

Twitter and ESPN (dis) are planning to announce a partnership that will allow the social network to tweet out video clips of major sports highlights and sell ads specifically around those clips, providing new revenue opportunities for Twitter and giving ESPN greater visibility for major sports events. The news was first reported in The Wall Street Journal, and will come as no surprise to anyone who’s followed Twitter’s increasing courtship of television networks and the video content they produce.

We wrote about Twitter’s collaboration with a startup called Snappy TV and Turner Broadcasting that allowed the NCAA to tweet out highlight clips from March Madness throughout the annual college basketball tournament, with the clips sponsored by AT&T and Coke Zero, and a Twitter spokesperson confirmed Monday that the ESPN clips will appear in a similar manner inside Twitter Cards. The report indicated that Twitter will be selling advertising specifically around the sports clips that are tweeted out.

The company announced major updates to its Cards technology in early April that allowed for more types of content to appear in the tweets and more app promotion for third-party apps cross-posting to Twitter. The key to Cards is that a user never has to leave Twitter to view the content the Cards contain — everything is viewable directly in stream, which encourages users to stay on Twitter’s website.

My colleague Mathew Ingram and I have written about Twitter’s transformation over the past year or so to become more of a media company, and Twitter’s partnerships with television, music and video outlets are numerous. There were rumors of deals with Viacom and NBC, a partnership with Nielson to measure user activity around television, the launch of the Twitter #music app and following music entertainment show.

For Twitter, all of this content could make tweets more engaging for users who become captive audience members participating in live events. But perhaps more importantly for the company, if it’s gearing up for the IPO everyone expects, video provides an excellent platform for advertising and big brand partnerships that could make Twitter a lot of money.

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PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is, to put it mildly, a prolific investor. These days it feels like his main focus is on cleantech, but he also still has an eye for the financial technology (fintech) sector, as evidenced by the investment his Valar Ventures vehicle has just made in Transferwise.

We’ve covered Transferwise several times over the past couple of year, documenting how the U.K.-based firm is shaking up the international bank transfer market. The company maintains reserves across multiple countries, which it uses to allow transfers at much cheaper rates than those levied by traditional banks.

One of Transferwise’s early angels was PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, so it’s not hugely surprising to see Thiel join in the company’s $6 million Series A round. Other participants include Levchin again, IA Ventures, Index Ventures, TAG, Seedcamp, former Betfair CEO David Yu and Xavier Niel’s Kima Ventures.

Transferwise does seem to be growing at a very healthy clip indeed. At the end of February 2012, it had done £10 million ($15 million) in transactions. By the end of 2012 the total was £50 million, and now it’s apparently £125 million – growth is between 20-30 percent a month. And it’s not hard to see why. I used the service myself once, and it does what it says on the tin: save money.

As Thiel said in a statement:

“Innovation in the banking industry typically involves rent-seeking or unsound derivatives, which offer marginal benefits to consumers. TransferWise demonstrates true innovation in banking by enabling its users to retain their wealth across borders.”

According to Transferwise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, the fresh funding will help the firm add a dozen new currencies (it currently does euros, pounds, dollars, Polish zlotys and Danish, Swedish and Norwegian krone) and push into the German, Spanish, French and Italian markets.

The company will also hire about another 20 people, on top of its current 35, and will start “taking a look at traditional marketing” too, Hinrikus said.

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The Carlyle Group has acquired a minority stake in Al-Nabil Food Industries Co. Ltd. The founding Rassam family will continue to hold a majority stake. Financial terms of the deal, which closed May 13, were not announced. Nabil produces more than 200 frozen and chilled food products including beef and chicken burgers.

PRESS RELEASE

Amman, Jordan – Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) today announced that it has established a partnership through which it will hold a significant minority equity stake in Al-Nabil Food Industries Co. Ltd. (Nabil). The founding Rassam family will continue to hold a majority stake. The transaction closed on May 13, 2013. Additional financial details were not released.

Equity for this investment will come from Carlyle MENA Partners, L.P., a $500 million growth capital and buyout fund focused on the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey. This transaction is part of Carlyle MENA’s ongoing strategy of investing in fast-growing consumer-centric industries in partnership with family groups.

The Rassam family, who founded Nabil Foods in 1945, will continue to hold a majority stake in the local company, which has grown over the years to become a premier producer of a broad range of frozen and chilled food products. Through the company’s agreement with Carlyle MENA, Nabil Foods will retain its existing management and workforce, while benefitting from Carlyle MENA’s experience in transforming family-owned businesses into corporations.

Nabil Founder and CEO Nabil Rassam said, “We at Nabil are very pleased to welcome Carlyle MENA on-board as a partner in our business. Over the years, thanks to the dedication and hard work of our management and employees, we have grown into one of the region’s most recognized and trusted names in the food industry. By joining forces with Carlyle MENA, we hope to further expand Nabil’s presence in the Middle East and Africa in a focused and strategic manner. We are confident that, through this partnership, we will be able to provide the high quality selection of Nabil products to a broader range of customers.”

Firas Nasir, Managing Director and Co-head of Carlyle MENA, said: “Nabil is a household name in Jordan. Its comprehensive offering of high-quality products represents an excellent platform for regional growth.”

Mr. Nasir further added, “This first investment in Jordan is in line with our commitment to the MENA region, its industries and economy. We remain dedicated to our strategy of becoming value-adding partners in family-owned businesses.”

Fuelled by a young and growing population as well as strong GDP and income growth, the Gulf States’ food imports are expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 8 percent between 2010 and 2020, and Middle East and Africa QSR food consumption is expected to grow 11.5 percent during that time, providing encouraging secular trends to support Nabil’s growth platform.

Previous investments made by Carlyle MENA include:

Alamar Foods, the operator of Domino’s Pizza and Wendy’s restaurants throughout MENA and producer of food products for the casual dining restaurant industry
General Lighting Company, one of the largest lighting fixtures manufacturers and suppliers in the Middle East and Africa, based in Saudi Arabia
Medical Park Sağlık Hizmetleri A. Ş., one of Turkey’s largest healthcare services companies with 18 hospitals
Penti, one of the largest manufacturers of hosiery and retailer of women’s hosiery, lingerie and swimwear in Turkey
Bahcesehir Koleji, one of the largest private education providers in Turkey, with 17 campuses

* * * * *

About Al Nabil Company for Food Products
Founded in 1945, Nabil produces over 200 frozen and chilled food products including beef and chicken burgers, chicken strips and nuggets, cold cuts, ethnic foods, pre-cooked meals, and sweets. Nabil sells its products to retail, catering and quick service restaurant customers in over 20 countries throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In 2009, Nabil Foods embarked on significant expansion program that has more than tripled its production capacity.

About Carlyle MENA Partners
Carlyle’s MENA team was established in 2007 to invest primarily in healthy, growing companies. Carlyle’s MENA team targets investments in the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), the Levant (Lebanon and Jordan), North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia) and Turkey. The MENA team applies Carlyle’s global experience in various sectors, including consumer and retail, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, financial services, telecommunication and transportation to its investments in the region, while nurturing local talent and expertise.

About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $176 billion of assets under management in 114 funds and 76 fund of fund vehicles as of March 31, 2013. Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value. Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Market Strategies and Fund of Funds Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,400 people in 34 offices across six continents. The Group is a responsible member of the global community. Carlyle contributes to the local communities that it operates in by way of nurturing top local talent, advancing key industries and contributing to the overall economic environment.

The post Carlyle Invests in Al-Nabil Food appeared first on peHUB.

There’s been a bit of a backlash brewing in media circles lately: a growing movement against the idea that online journalism has to consist solely of hundreds of tiny news briefs or slideshows, and in favor of the idea that “longform” writing can also thrive online. Along those lines, the technology site Fast Company provided some interesting data recently about its experience with writing longer pieces — but I think the conclusions it arrived at aren’t about length as much as they are about engagement. And that is a very different story altogether.

In his post, entitled “This Is What Happens When Publishers Invest In Long Stories,” FastCo Labs editor Chris Dannan talked about how the site decided to experiment with what he calls “slow live-blogging” — that is, a series of stories that would take shape over time, beginning with a short stub article consisting mostly of a topic paragraph or summary of an issue, and then get added to as new developments arose. Dannan explained that this was a way of blending news with a more feature-like approach.

“Instead of starting with a fresh article every time we want to cover something inside a regular beat, which might require a long catch-up introduction, context, background and so forth, we could just put fresh news at the top and let the reader scroll down to read previous updates.”

Readers stay longer and read more

What happened when this approach started getting rolled out, Dannan says, was fairly dramatic. As he puts it in his post, the results “blew up my assumptions about how to drive traffic.” Among other things, the tech site’s “bounce rate” — that is, the rate at which readers decided to quit reading and go elsewhere — dropped substantially. The average amount of time spent at the site also increased, as did the number of pages per visit that were read by users.

Dannan says it’s too early to tell how permanent these effects will be for Fast Co. Labs, just as it’s impossible to know whether those favorable results stem from the changes they made in their approach to longer stories. But he says that regardless of these caveats, “it sure as hell looks like it’s working,” and that he believes long-form journalism is the future.

It’s not length, it’s engagement

I am a big believer in the value of longer pieces in general, and I think the once-popular myth that people don’t read longform articles online has been largely disproven (although I wonder how many of those who praised the New York Times feature Snow Fall read the whole thing). But it’s also true that editors and publishers often conflate length and quality — as Caroline O’Donovan pointed out in a (short) post on Fast Co.’s experience at the Nieman Journalism Lab.

I think Fast Company’s results actually show something very different from the appeal of longform articles per se: since these posts began with “stub” articles and then grew over time, as more news or analysis emerged about the topic itself, I think they show the value of engaging readers by following a story over time and providing some kind of comprehensive background and context, instead of just bombarding them with a stream of news briefs.

That approach may result in longer stories, but I think that’s almost a side effect rather than the main attraction. No one is going to read those kinds of posts simply because they are long — but if a site builds a narrative and a point of view and some context over time about an issue (the mobile news-reading app Circa is trying to do this by allowing users to “follow” specific breaking news stories, and then alerting them to updates) then it pays off in engagement.

There are lessons in there not just for new-media players but for traditional media outlets that are trying to find a recipe for success online as well.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Scholastic

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When the blockbuster web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries partnered with DECA last fall, part of that deal was the promise of literary adaptations beyond Pride and Prejudice to satisfy its now-rabid fanbase. Thus, launching today is Welcome to Sanditon (AKA Sanditon), based on an unfinished Jane Austen novel — and looking to include said rabid fanbase directly in the story.

Created to fill in the gap between Lizzie Bennet and the next full-length novel adaptation, Sanditon features the return of Lizzie Bennet co-star Allison Page as Gigi Darcy, who’s spending the summer in the small coastal California town of Sanditon, working with the local community to launch a beta version of an app called Domino.

When the concept of the “Domino app” was introduced in the Lizzie Bennet narrative, it was on the surface a story device meant to explain how a particular character was successfully tracked down and brought to justice. But now, the format of the Domino app serves as a revised take on Lizzie Bennet‘s vlog-style storytelling, with the app enabling members of the Sanditon community to collaborate on videos. The first episode showcases this new approach, with Gigi sharing screen time with the town’s mayor and local ice cream shop owner.

But Domino’s reach expands past its presence on YouTube, thanks to a partnership between LBD production company Pemberley Digital and Theatrics.com. With the launch of today’s episode came the launch of Domino Beta Platform: Sanditon, where, in just the first few hours online today, over 30 new profiles (AKA “personas”) have been created, each by audience members looking to participate in the story.

People are playing in Sanditon outside of the Theatrics platform — a Twitter list created by the official Sanditon account currently lists over 300 “townspeople” beyond the official cast of the series. But the Sanditon team will be able to communicate privately with those participating on Theatrics, meaning that they’ll be able to keep the fan community abreast of upcoming plot points, allowing everyone to engage fully with the story.

Jay Bushman and Margaret Dunlap, who are co-showrunning Sanditon, were “looking to extend the opportunity for fans to engage in the story,” Theatric’s head of new business development Nick DeMartino said. The problem with that kind of fan engagement with a pre-established narrative like, say, Pride and Prejudice, is well-known.

However, Austen’s Sanditon is famously unfinished. “They wanted to continue to be respectful of the spine of the story,” he said, “But here the story’s cut off at the neck.”

The first Sanditon resident, whose video was posted this morning, features Sarah Richard-Preston, who was one of those who pledged to LBD‘s record-breaking Kickstarter campaign.

At her donor level, her character is guaranteed to be included in the main story, but there’s also potential for other personas to be included down the line, depending on how the Sanditon community develops.

According to DeMartino, Theatrics’ involvement with Sanditon is its first venture into consumer-facing platforms — prior to now, it has focused on a white label offering, giving entities like USA Network for collaborative storytelling ventures.

“What we’re trying to do here is build customers and get feedback on how the platform is working for them,” DeMartino said. The plan is to then broaden to other tool-based programs for creators interested in the platform — as well as brands.

“All brands are storytellers,” DeMartino added. “They have to be.”

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An old photograph from 1930′s Harlem has popped up on the web and is making the viral rounds due to its subject: a man who looks eerily similar to rapper Jay-Z. Employees at the Schomburg Center are hoping someone can come forward with knowledge of who the man is.

There’s been no official link between Jay and the unidentified man, but the resemblance is insane. Check it out:

Last week the Blandin Foundation released the 2013 Rural Pulse, a research study that has been commissioned by the Blandin Foundation since 1998 to gain a real-time snapshot of the concerns, perceptions and priorities of rural Minnesota residents. It’s always good for gauging trends and attitudes in Minnesota, especially rural Minnesota. I am always most interested in where and how technology comes up in the discussion.

A highlighted concern in the report is the economy…

The Economic Lens: Concern about jobs continues.

While 22 percent of rural residents feel their local economy has improved over the last year, more than half believe it has stayed the same and 20 percent indicate that it has worsened. Urban Minnesota residents are nearly twice as likely to feel their local economy has seen improvement over the past year.

The need for attracting new, high-quality jobs continues to be the top priority for 36 percent of rural Minnesotans – more than twice as important as education. Urban dwellers also consider attracting new, high-quality jobs (28%) and educational opportunities (21%) to be top priorities.

Technology was suggested as a tool to help improve the economy…

Most rural and urban residents believe improved technology could assist with job retention and creation, and feel their local area works together to maintain and grow job opportunities.

The sentiment is not unfounded; the National Ag and Rural Development Policy Center made that connection in a report released in March.

The survey also indicates that rural residents feel that the local community is meeting the technology needs…

Quality of Life: Rural Minnesotans believe their community is addressing most local needs.

Most rural residents (87%) believe that their community offers equal access to essential services.

Rural residents give their community relatively good grades for addressing environmental stewardship, crime control, services for the elderly, education, improving access to technology and residential housing.

Taking great liberties in reading between the lines here, it seems that the perception is that the rural areas are addressing residential technology needs – and while I’m taking liberties, I’m going to change that to broadband. (Really how useful is technology without broadband these days?) However, the perception also is that rural areas are not addressing the broadband needs of businesses.

There are notable exceptions but from meetings I’ve attended it seems that again these observation may not be unfounded. Some of the larger providers are sticking with DSL-type speeds, which are more apt to meet household needs (unless you have a houseful of teens!) than business needs. The frustration is twofold: many businesses are hesitant to move to areas with slower speeds and it is more difficult to start or maintain a business with slower speeds.

The report helps make the case that broadband is important to local businesses and residents. For local leaders looking at broadband, I think knowing the concern for jobs and belief that technology can help can help hone messages to promote local broadband investment.

With the impatient wait for the return of the NFL enters its “Dog Days” stage, especially now that the draft has come and gone, the NFL-ravenous public circles like hungry sharks waiting for the next tidbit of news about their favorite team or player. One such team that’s well known in relation to moving the dial is the Philadelphia Eagles. Granted, much of the attention focuses on the fact that Michael Vick plays quarterback for the franchise, thanks in large part to his well documented past. Add in a new head coach like Chip Kelly, previously of the multi-uniformed Oregon Ducks, to the mix, and what you have is a nice recipe for catching the public’s eye.

And so, whenever news of Vick racing one of his teammates hits the modern media circuit, it’s going to get traction. This is helped by the fact that Michael Vick was known to have otherworldly-like speed. Because of the beating Vick has been taking, however, thanks to getting absolutely buried by various defenses in recent seasons, there were looming doubts about whether or not Vick possessed his impressive physical gifts. This belief is, apparently, what led Eagles running back LeSean McCoy to challenge his quarterback to a 40-yard dash footrace. While the race itself apparently happened almost two weeks ago–Vick won–the topic is still up for discussion, at least to the player who crossed the finish line after Vick.

As the various local Philadelphia sports writers follow the Eagles during the off-season workouts, McCoy was asked about the race, to which he replied, “he jumped off. He started early.” Considering the all-access era of news we live in, there is, of course, video of McCoy’s response, courtesy of CSNPhilly.com.

While the story here is indeed frivolous and fluffy, the fact that it has become a talking point only further indicates the incredible popularity of NFL. With all due respect to Allen Iverson, we’re not even talking about practice here. We’re talking about a footrace. Furthermore, the story is getting some traction as well. With that in mind, it’s not hard to imagine Roger Goodell sitting behind his desk made of money, laughing to himself while his interns tell him such a story is actually a topical subject. The laugh comes from the (daily) confirmation that, yes, the National Football League does, in fact, rule the roost when it comes to capturing the attention of sports fans.

With all of that in mind, while the fact that Vick still has his speed may provide a sense of satisfaction for Eagles fans, if they want him to start more than 10 games next season, they better hope the offensive line protection improves. In those 10 starts during last season, Vick was sacked 28 times, clearly indicating his speed wasn’t enough.

This Wednesday, thousands of people will flock to San Francisco’s Moscone Center to take part in Google I/O, the company’s annual developers conference. Tickets to the event sold out in less than an hour — but there’s some good news for anyone who didn’t make the cut, or couldn’t afford to pay $900 to take part in the spectacle: Google will once again stream the event online.

Live streaming starts on Wednesday at 9:00 am PT with the keynote, and will continue throughout the day with up to five simultaneous live streams of key technical sessions as well as “exclusive interviews, product unboxings, and demos from the I/O floor,” as the I/O site puts it. Live streams will also be available on Thursday starting at 10:00 am. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Google will stream any of Friday’s sessions online.

All live streams can be accessed directly on the I/O site, where you can also find a detailed schedule of the conference. Or just tune into the keynote below:

GigaOM will also provide extended converage of Google I/O. Make sure to check our site for updates.

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The mummified body of a writer was found in her New Mexico home last week, and authorities believe it’s possible she’s been dead for up to a year.

Barbara Salinas-Norman was known for her children’s books, which she wrote and illustrated to help Mexican-American kids learn about their heritage. She also founded and ran a publishing company, Pinata Publications. However, her last days were most likely sad ones. Friends say she’d had the power and water cut off in her condo due to non-payment of her bills and sometimes slept in her car. When her brother-in-law and sister made a visit last week out of concern, they found her home in complete disarray.

“If you saw the apartment, you would never walk inside it,” Louis Ponce said. “I never knew anybody could be that filthy.”

The 70-year old author and former teacher was found mummified due to the extreme dry heat in New Mexico; authorities aren’t sure about the time of death, but say it could have been as far back as October.

“This woman looks like a mummy, essentially,” Santa Fe police spokeswoman Celina Westervelt said. “All of her skin has dried out. You could see the skeleton underneath. There were no body fluids anymore.”

Autopsy results are pending.

Verizon Wireless on Monday announced that it will pay its parent companies a $7 billion cash distribution in June. Verizon and Vodafone teamed up back in 2000 to create the joint venture Verizon Wireless, which has grown to become the largest wireless carrier in the United States with more than 115 million customers. Based on their respective stakes in the company, Verizon, which owns 55% of the partnership, will receive a cash payment of $3.85 billion and Vodafone, which has a 45% stake, will receive $3.15 billion. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam previously hinted that Vodafone may not get a distribution payment this year, in an effort to pressure the company into selling its stake in the carrier. Verizon Wireless will make the payment to each company on June 25th. The company’s press release follows below.

Continue reading…

Do you find yourself with a bunch of videos and pictures with no organization in sight? Do you wish you had the time to edit them and make them more meaningful? Then look no further because I have an app for you. It’s called WeVideo and it’s a very simple video editor for your Android phone. As people are starting to use their phones more and more for both videos and pictures, an app like this is a must have.

WeVideo is actually an online editing tool, but now you get many of the same features on your Android phone at basically no cost. I know what you’re thinking. You are saying to yourself that this is just going to be another app that is complicated, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Trust me, within minutes you will have some really cool videos.

Once you open the app, you will be given the opportunity to create an account via Gmail, Facebook, or Yahoo!. I used the Gmail option, which was quite simple. You need this account because WeVideo is going to save your projects online at their website. More on that later. Once you are in the app, you can tap on the Menu icon at the top left. Just choose New Video. Then you type in a name for the video such as “A day at the beach”. Now you will be in the edit mode. You will see three tabs at the top: Videos, Images, and Audio. Each of those areas will have the media associated with it. For music, it’s just a matter of selecting what song (on your device) you want to be played on the video or if you don’t want music, you can choose “No audio”. For videos and images, just drag the ones you want to the area that says, “Drag video and photos here”. This is the timeline.

You can now tap on any of the video and images in the timeline for further editing. You can trim videos by sliding the start and end points. Don’t worry because your originals in your gallery will be unchanged. You can also adjust the volume and add a caption. For pictures, you can choose how long you want it to be displayed or add a caption. If you want to re-arrange the videos and image, you can drag them in the timeline. After you’re happy with your video, now it’s time to select a theme or style. Just tap on the Style icon at the bottom and you will find 23 styles to choose from. Each style has its own custom transitions and color effects. You will find styles such as Vintage, Punk Rock, Confetti, Travel Journal, Polished, Bold & Distinct, and so on. If you don’t want a theme, just select “No theme”.

After you have selected your style, you can review your video to give you an idea of what it will look like. If you want to do any further editing or change the style, you can still do so. If you’re happy with the results, you can now hit the publish icon at the bottom right. This is where you will be given an opportunity to send it directly to Facebook or YouTube. You can also save a local copy to your gallery if you choose. No matter what, it will publish to the WeVideo site as a cloud backup. All the images, videos, and music will be uploaded to WeVideo, the final video will be rendered, and the video will export to your local storage (if you chose this option). Once everything is completed you will get a notification and an email telling you so. If you chose to save a copy to your gallery, you can always share it whenever you want without having to render it again. Your project will automatically be saved to both your phone and the WeVideo site, so if you ever want to fine tune things, you can.

The app itself is free and you are allowed 5GB of storage and up to 15 minutes of export time (for exporting videos to your device) per month. You can purchase additional storage if you wish, but I would say most people will be fine with the amount they are offering at no charge. To give you an idea of costs, they offer a package that gives you 10GB of data and 60 minutes of exporting for $4.99 per month or $49.99 annually. If you only want storage, you can grab 10GB for $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year. They have other levels as well so check out their site. All videos on your phone will be rendered to 720p, but you can opt for 1080p on the site. You also get a chance to do some more sophisticated editing on the site as well. The one caveat is if you edit on the site and need to render, your final copy will have a watermark and only be 480p. You can drop the watermark and render to 720p for 99-cents or 1080p for $1.99. If you’re using your phone only, there is no charge and no watermark. One other thing the site offers is the ability to directly share to more sites such as Twitter, Vimeo, Dropbox, and Google Drive. In my opinion, the casual user will probably never need to go to the site or pay extra.

All in all, WeVideo is a very simple app for editing your videos. I know a lot of people will go on vacation or to an event and take a lot of videos and pictures, but what is the fun in that if it’s not documented correctly? I know most people share their images, but when it comes to videos, they usually get forgotten. WeVideo will turn those videos and images into something memorable for yourself and your family. The best part of it is that it won’t require that much work or cost.

If you’re still not convinced, check out my hands on video below on how easy it is, and grab one of the download links. As always, let me know what you think.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Play Store Download Link

WeVideo site

Come comment on this article: Featured Android App Review: WeVideo – Video Editor [Media]

While there will be no shortage of smartphone-equipped developers and media recording the goings-on at the Google I/O developer conference later this week, Google plans on conducting its own experiments. To get the most out of its developer conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco later this week, it will deploy a bunch of Arduinos throughout the venue to detect humidity, motion, sound and temperature.

According to a Monday blog post from Michael Manoochehri, a Google developer program engineer, Google will take the data coming in from the Arduino boards and visualize it all in real time with Google Cloud Platform services such as Google Compute Engine and BigQuery. And it’s no teensy-weensy data set:

“Altogether, the sensors network will provide over 4,000 continuous data streams over a ZigBee mesh network managed by Device Cloud by Etherios.”

The visualizations will be on display on screens during the conference. And Google said it will make the Cloud Platform code and the resulting data available in open source.

O’Reilly Media has used Arduinos at events for similar purposes before, as I reported in February. How are the deployments different? For one thing, Google uses the Google cloud — surprise, surprise — while O’Reilly has used Amazon Web Services. The question is whether the project will persuade non-Google developers to try using the Google Cloud Platform for their own programs to crunch data generated by sensors.

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If you were planning on getting any more work done today, well, cancel those plans. Go to Google Image search and type “atari breakout.”

Are you doing it yet?

What you’ll find is a wonderful little Easter Egg from Google, who have turned the image search results for the classic Atari game into a fun little game of their own. Each time you complete a level, Google auto-generates another set of image results for you to bust. From our experience, it’s usually some sort of food like “milkshake” or dog like “mastiff.”

Once you’re done busting up image blocks, you can share your high score on Google+. The game, while fun, doesn’t get any harder as you progress. So there will be some really high scores to beat, I’m sure.

Atari’s Breakout first launched back in April of 1976, which means that it’s currently 37 years old. Nearly four decades old, simple as can be, but still addicting as hell – as any great arcade game should be.

Link for the lazy.

Foley & Lardner LLP said it raised $2.6 million for Foley Ventures Fund II, a venture capital fund that invests in or with its clients. The law firm has now raised $6.6 million between its first and second funds and invested in 32 clients. The law firm runs the Chicago based incubator Catapult Chicago.

PRESS RELEASE

FOLEY RAISES $2.6 MILLION FOR NEW SECOND VENTURE CAPITAL FUND

Foley & Lardner LLP announced today that Foley VenturesSM Fund II, a venture capital fund exclusively dedicated to investing in or with Foley clients, successfully raised $2.6 million from its partners. Combined with the firm’s initial venture capital fund, Foley Ventures Fund I, the firm’s partners have raised a total of $6.6 million and invested in 32 clients.

The development of the Foley Ventures funds is a direct result of the firm’s extensive venture capital and private equity experience and insight gained through working with numerous funds and emerging growth companies. The firm’s partners recognized that clients need more than legal insights to succeed and funded Foley Ventures Funds I and II to invest in – or alongside – them.

“Establishing Foley’s active venture capital funds has proved to be very important in supporting our clients in their pursuit of capital to grow their businesses or to invest in promising early-stage businesses,” said Gabor Garai, chair of the firm’s Private Equity & Venture Capital Practice. “By having a vested financial interest in our clients’ businesses, we have demonstrated our commitment to their success by literally putting our money where our mouths are.”

Foley Ventures funds are designed to simplify the investment process. When an attorney is working with a venture fund client, Foley Ventures will invest in a portfolio company, which is projected to have adequate cash flow after the investment, for at least one year. For start-up or emerging companies, the fund will invest if the company receives a simultaneous investment from a professionally managed venture fund or angel group, and if adequate cash flow for one year is projected. Foley Ventures Fund II also allows for investment in other venture capital or private equity funds that are managed or sponsored by clients.

Foley attorneys across all practices ranging from intellectual property to government regulations, in any U.S. or international office, are free to submit qualified investment opportunities regardless of whether or not they invested in Foley Ventures. This provides the fund with an extensive and diverse deal flow.

Foley’s Private Equity & Venture Capital Practice is comprised of more than 200 attorneys focused on the full range of public and private debt and equity vehicles and their investment activities. By offering an array of legal services, including intellectual property, employee benefits, tax, finance, real estate and corporate transactions, attorneys can assist angel, private equity and venture capital funds with all aspects of their business from fund formation to exit strategy. Foley Ventures further enhances the high caliber of service the firm provides to clients and is among many service offerings available through the Private Equity & Venture Capital Practice.

About Foley & Lardner LLP
With approximately 900 attorneys in 21 offices, Foley & Lardner LLP provides award-winning business and legal insight to clients across the country and around the world. Our team-based approach, innovative technology, and focus on value and client service are continually recognized by our clients and the legal industry. Foley has been named one of the elite BTI Client Service 30 for nine of the past 10 years in a survey* of Fortune 1000 corporate counsel. In addition, Foley received 20 national first-tier rankings on the 2013 U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” list and was named to the 2012InformationWeek 500 list for technological innovation that enhances business value. Learn more at Foley.com.
*The BTI Consulting Group (Wellesley, MA)

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Today President Obama welcomed British Prime Minister David Cameron to the White House, where the two leaders discussed issues ranging from economic development to the unfolding conflict in Syria.

"[T]he great alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom is rooted in shared interests and shared values, and it’s indispensable to global security and prosperity," President Obama said. "But as we’ve seen again recently, it's also a partnership of the heart."

The President thanked the people of the United Kingdom for their support in the wake of the bombings in Boston. In London, marathoners observed a moment of silence and dedicated their race to the victims in Massachusetts.

Prime Minister Cameron echoed the President's sentiments on the strength of the alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom.

"[The] relationship between Britain and the United States is a partnership without parallel," the Prime Minister said. "Day in, day out across the world, our diplomats and intelligence agencies work together, our soldiers serve together, and our businesses trade with each other."

In his remarks today, Prime Minister Cameron made a point to focus on three issues under discussion: the economy, the G8, and Syria. The United Kingdom currently holds the presidency of the G8 and will host the group's next summit in June — in Northern Ireland.

Watch the full video of the press conference here: 

When Pinterest moved up to San Francisco last summer, the move, along with similar leaps from companies like AirBnb and Twitter, signaled both the high prices of Silicon Valley real estate and the growing community of startups in the city.

On Monday, the team at Pinterest finally moved into the company’s newly-renovated offices, and GigaOM got a tour of the new digs and sat down with CEO Ben Silbermann, who talked about where the company is headed now that it’s settled into the new location. Pinterest now has about 100 employees, and we’ve written before about how Pinterest has been able to maintain a culture of collaboration between designers and engineers in part due to its relatively small size.

“We are heads down on execution,” Silbermann said.

Pinterest announced back in November that it would be rolling out some options specifically for businesses, and it announced a web analytics product in March. But for a company that just raised $200 million, putting its valuation at $2.5 billion, it seems likely that we’ve only just starting see what the company has planned.

Recent Comscore numbers put the company’s traffic at about 48 million global users, and while the company has made no moves into e-commerce yet, the vast number of people “pinning” photos of items certainly presents a lot of money-making avenues for the company down the line. Silbermann said the company will be announcing an update to Pinterest in a few weeks:

“We’ve already indicated Pinterest for business and and Pinterest insights are some of the foundational things for the company,” he said. “Our focus has been to become a very valuable service.”

When Silbermann spoke at our Roadmap conference in November 2012, he talked about the challenges in keeping a user’s attention as the web and smartphones increasingly pull them in different directions. One thing that could keep users on Pinterest more often is the tablet, which Silbernmann called “the device of the future.” But even more than securing user eyeballs, he talked about his desire to translate actions on Pinterest into everyday life.

“We want to make pinning actionable,” he said.

Here are some more of Om’s photos of the company’s new offices:

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