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The days leading up to a big industry event like Google I/O are always packed with leaks and this week has been no different. Among the details trickling out ahead of Google’s big day is confirmation that a complete overhaul of Google Maps will debut during the keynote on Wednesday. Or, it would have debuted had Google not leaked it ahead of time. Droid Life managed to grab screenshots of the new Google Maps’ sign-up page when it accidentally went live briefly on Tuesday night, and they reveal what appears to be a terrific reimagining of Google’s popular mapping service. Changes include a brand new layout, new search features and new ways to highlight the “things that matter most.” Additional images showcasing Google Maps’ new design follow below and the rest of the screenshots can be viewed by following the source link beneath them.

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Microsoft’s decision to drop the Start menu in Windows 8 has caused plenty of controversy, but fortunately it’s made little difference to the end user. Developers quickly realized that many people really don’t like the new interface at all, and they’ve produced a host of free tools to help make Windows 8 look and feel as much like Windows 7 as possible.

Start Menu Reviver, though, has a different aim. Instead of ignoring Microsoft’s Modern UI, it adapts it, with configurable tiles rather than text links. There’s good integration with Windows 8, including the ability to launch Start Screen apps from your desktop. But at the same time, it’s not tied to Windows 8 systems: if you like the look, you can install and run the program on Windows 7, too.

After a straightforward setup, Start Menu Reviver displays a link to a demo video where you can learn more about how this works. But although this is useful, you’ll figure out most of the details for yourself, so it’s safe to dismiss that for now and jump right in.

Just as you’d expect, Start Menu Reviver pops up whenever you click the Start orb or press the Windows key. (It’s not made any drastic low-level changes to achieve this, though, so if you have any problems with the program then it can easily be dismissed: just right-click the Start orb and select Exit.)

The opening menu looks good, and works well. Left-hand buttons give you one-click access to common destinations: the Search window, Run box, Recent Documents list, Network and Sharing Centre and more.

Right-hand tiles initially give you access to various folders (My Computer, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos), applications and system areas (Control Panel, Task Manager), as well as switching you to the Start Screen in Windows 8 (you can launch Windows 8 apps from the menu, too).

Elsewhere, a Search box helps you find what you need, and a Power button displays all the usual options: Log Off, Switch User, Lock, Sleep, Hibernate, Restart, Shutdown.

You’ll also want to customize these tiles, of course, and there are multiple ways to do this. Move the mouse cursor to the right of the menu, for instance, and a view of your Program Files folder appears; find an executable, drag and drop it onto a tile and it’ll be added immediately.

Alternatively, right-clicking any of the right-hand tiles provides an option to customize it with a shortcut of your own. This can point to a program, document or website, and can optionally be set to run as an Administrator, if necessary. And if there’s not enough space, the larger tiles can optionally be used to hold four individual shortcuts, giving you up to 32 in total.

There are some annoyances here. If you type the name of a program in the regular Start Menu search, for instance, you can immediately use the up and down cursor keys and press Enter to select and launch whatever you need. With Start Menu Reviver, though, the keyboard focus remains on the Search box, so you can’t do any of this. To select and launch a program you must double-click it with the mouse (or tap it on a touch screen).

Start Menu Reviver also isn’t quite as configurable as we’d like (the left-hand buttons appear to be fixed). It uses a notable amount of RAM (50MB or so on our test PC), and requires a “helper” service to be installed.

The program looks great, is free (for personal use) and has plenty of features, though, so if you need a Start Menu alternative then it’s well worth considering.

On Wednesday, US manufacturer HP unveiled a new Windows 8-based hybrid dubbed the Split x2. The company touts the device as being able to deliver the best of both worlds — works as a tablet and doubles as an ultraportable with the keyboard dock.

The Split x2 packs a 13.3-inch HD display and is powered by a third generation Intel Core processor (known under the “Ivy Bridge” codename). The device comes with 128 GB of internal storage. Users can also choose to add a 500 GB HDD inside the keyboard dock, which brings the tally up to 628 GB.

This allows the Split x2 to cater to more demanding users which wish to store large files on the device and to also better compete with established ultrabook solutions, which can pack similar if not more storage capacity out-of-the-box.

With the keyboard dock attached, the Split x2 weighs 4.85 lbs (2.2 KG). When used as a tablet (with no keyboard) the device comes in at 2.3 lbs (1.04 KG). However, if you’re looking for a similarly-sized light ultrabook you might want to look elsewhere. The 13.3-inch ASUS Zenbook, for instance, weighs just 1.45 KG.

The Split x2 also features HP’s Connected Music and Beats Audio, which are designed to improve the audio experience, a 2 MP Full HD webcam (with a resolution of 1920 by 1080) and a touchpad (which HP calls a ClickPad) on the keyboard dock.

HP says that the Split x2 should be available from August in the US. The hybrid will run for $799.99.

On the all-Chrome podcast this week, we remind folks that Google Keep is replacing Scratchpad in Chrome OS: Don’t forget to sync your notes! Also, Google has added push notification support in Chrome. Speaking of Google, Joe Marini, a Google Developer Advocate talks about Packaged Apps, Native Client and more.

Our extension of the week will help you better manage your tasks while a quick tip helps unhide your “missing” extensions. Oh… and isn’t there a big event this week? Hear our preview thoughts of Google I/O!

Show notes

Hosts: Chris Albrecht and Kevin C. Tofel

• Goodbye Scratchpad, hello Google Keep
• Google gets pushy with notifications
• Special guest: Joe Marini from Google
• What we expect from Google I/O
• Extension of the week: Any.DO
• Tip: Can’t see all of your extensions? Here’s the fix

Got questions, tips or tricks for an upcoming GigaOM Chrome Show? Find Kevin on Google+, Twitter (@kevinctofel) or via e-mail ([email protected])

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• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• Carrier IQ and the continued erosion of operator trust
• Siri: Say hello to the coming “invisible interface”

Drones, or unmanned, aircraft are already used in military intelligence operations; Airware is betting that they will be big in commercial jobs as well and now has $10.7 million in Series A venture funding to help make that happen.

Founded in 2011, the Newport Beach, Calif. startup builds the autopilot or the “brains” that drive drones. One current Airware customer, Deltadrone in France already has drones conducting skier search-and-rescue and for open-air mining operations, said Airware CEO Jonathan Downey.

Downey, an MIT grad who knows about aircraft having spent a few years at Boeing, sees upcoming commercial applications including prevention of wildlife poaching and agriculture although to date, commercial use is limited until the FAA comes up with regulations on and requirements for their use. Congress has mandated that be done by 2015.

Airwave clearly thinks demand will be huge once the regs are in place. A survey by  the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) — admittedly a non-partial observer — projects that the manufacture and use of drones built in the U.S. could create 70,000 jobs in the first three years, adding $13.6 billion to the economy.

Potential competition for Airware could come from the big aerospae companies but so far, drones have had “only one customer and are only used for one purpose — military surveillance, ” Downey said in an interview. “We started this company because we think  there will be a wide variety of applications on the commercial side and those drones will probably be flown by people who will not be as trained or skilled so the hardware and software have to be customized for various users.”

The company will furnish APIs to allow that customization of the autopilot which is an integrated bundle of sensors, computer and communications gear and software — thus also be adaptable for specific uses and power fixed-wing, helicopter or multi-rotor drones. “We provide the APIs to allow companies to customize the autopilot for their needs,” he said.

The initial applications will probably require that the person with responsibility of the drone stays within sight and in low-population areas, he said. Agriculture could be big. “We could provide imaging to determine which areas are over- or under-watered, what is the ideal time for harvesting, and what areas need pesticide,” he said. By letting farmers pinpoint where water or pesticides should be applied, drones could cut the use of both.

Other applications could include the inspection of large buildings or power lines; mapping; and perhaps even sports or event photography. Hey, if a blimp can do it … Other companies propose the use of drones for news gathering purposes. And, as GigaOM’s Amanda Alvarez reported recently, David Lester at UC Berkeley helped create a hack group to investigate the use of small drones for commercial purposes.

Prior to this round of funding, Airware which si a Y Combinator and Lemnos Labs graduate, netted about $3 million in seed money from First Round Capital, Firelake Capital, RRE Ventures, Shasta Ventures and Promus Ventures, brings total funding to date to $13.7 million

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• GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013
• How HR can make the case for workforce analytics
• The 2013 task management tools market

PernixData, the startup founded by former VMware and Oracle technologists, now has $20 million in Series B funding to pursue its goal of virtualizing all that flash memory that’s getting shipped with new servers.

The round was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with participation from original investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and individual investors including Mark Leslie, co-founder  of Veritas; John Thompson, former CEO of Symantec and Lane Bess, former CEO of Palo Alto Networks. It brings total funding to about $27 million.

The company plans to use the cash to build out its enterprise support, sales and marketing staff and to add capabilities as the software heads for general availability. That should happen in about two months, company CEO Poojan Kumar said in an interview. There are about 30 employees now, with the goal to add 70 to 80 more in the next 9 to 12 months, he said.

“Enterprise software requires staffing and expertise,” he said. He should know — Kumar led Exadata development for Oracle and then headed up data products for VMware. His co-founder Satyam Vaghani was principal engineer at VMware, where he worked on the vSphere kernel and the clustered file system.

PernixData says its software-only approach makes a disruptive technology a non-disruptive install that will run with a company’s existing server and storage hardware, take all the server flash available and virtualize it into a shareable pool. The company’s goal is to become “the VMware of server-side flash.”

As more servers ship with on-board flash, there’s a desire to make the most of that resource — especially for tier 1 applications like database and ERP applications that have proven difficult to virtualize.

San Jose-based PernixData is early to this battle but it won’t be alone for long. It’s safe to say that legacy storage  and server players — ranging from EMC and NetApp to Hewlett-Packard and Dell, as well as flash storage players like Fusion-io and Violin Systems — are scrambling for traction here.

PernixData is betting that its product — now in beta at 50 companies — will beat them to market by a good two years and build from there.

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• Infrastructure Q2: Big data and PaaS gain more momentum
• Infrastructure Q1: IaaS Comes Down to Earth; Big Data Takes Flight
• Big Data, ARM and Legal Troubles Transformed Infrastructure in Q4

Financial media giant Bloomberg L.P. is planning to build a $710 million data center in Orangetown, N.Y., a northern suburb of New York City not far from a major data hub for the New York Stock Exchange, according to local media. The Bloomberg project is at a location owned by Russo Development Corp., a New Jersey developer that has built large data centers for the financial industry.

Russo’s previous projects include the NYSE Euronext trading hub in Mahwah, New Jersey, which is about 12 miles from the Bloomberg site in Orangetown. Bloomberg, which was founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, provides financial news and data through its ubiquitous Bloomberg terminal, a fixture on the desk of traders and analysts.

On Tuesday Bloomberg L.P. told local officials that it plans to invest $710 million at its site over the next 15 years. The company has asked the Rockland Industrial Development Agency for a sales-tax break and unspecified financial assistance to offset the $435 million initial investment required to renovate and equip the facility.

The project is expected to provide jobs for 250 construction workers over 18 months. About 80 people will be employed at the data center after construction, the company told local officials.

Sturdy Power Infrastructure

The site in Rockland County is about 25 miles north of New York, and is notable for its sturdy electrical infrastructure, according to documents from Russo, which purchased the property from Verizon in 2009. The property is adjacent to a utility substation supplied by subterranean 138kV transmission lines in a ring bus configuration. Up to four 13kV circuits are available to the property, supplied directly from the substation in concrete encased duct banks with a capacity of up to 10 megawatts per circuit, for a total utility capacity of 40 megawatts.

Russo Development has built more than 1.7 million square feet of data center space for companies including NYSE Euronext, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan Chase, Cervalis and SunGard Availability Services.

The Bloomberg site isn’t the only data center project in the works in Orangetown area. 1547 Realty Partners is marketing a data center property in Orangeburg, a hamlet within Orangetown. The developer says the data center will have an initial capacity of 24 megawatts from dual feeds, with a future substation planned that can boost capacity to 50 megawatts.

Atlantis Computing said it raised $20 million in a Series D round of funding led by Adams Street Partners and joined by existing investors Cisco Systems, El Dorado Ventures and Partech International. The company said it has now raised a total of $35 million in funding.

PRESS RELEASE

Atlantis Computing Raises $20 Million Funding Round

New Investor, Adams Street Partners, Leads Funding for Leader in Data Center Storage Optimization

Mountain View, CA – May 15, 2013 – Atlantis Computing™, the award-winning leader in data center storage optimization solutions, announced today the completion of a $20 million Series D financing round led by new investor Adams Street Partners. Previous investors Cisco Systems, El Dorado Ventures and Partech International also participated in the financing, continuing their commitment to Atlantis Computing. The funding will be used to support the company’s worldwide expansion.

“Adams Street Partners has been looking to invest in the growing virtualization market for some time, and we are excited to come on board with Atlantis Computing,” said Dave Welsh, Partner at Adams Street Partners and a member of Atlantis Computing’s board of directors. “We were impressed by several aspects of Atlantis Computing’s business, including its proven award-winning technology, strong go-to-market partnerships and fast-growing blue-chip customer base. We realized that Atlantis Computing is dramatically impacting the way storage will be consumed in the next generation virtual data center.”

Atlantis Computing is behind the largest and most successful desktop virtualization deployments in the world. Atlantis Computing more than tripled its customer base over the past year, and now has over 250 customers with more than 300,000 licenses sold. Learn more at http://www.atlantiscomputing.com/pr_20130226b.

“We took our first round of funding from venture capital investors in 2010, but have funded our growth through our customers’ business. We built a solid foundation for growth that helped us quadruple the business over the last two years,” said Bernard Harguindeguy, President and CEO of Atlantis Computing. “Funds from this latest round will be used to accelerate our worldwide expansion as we continue delivering on our vision of highly optimized storage infrastructure in the virtualized data center.”

Atlantis Computing was founded in 2006 with the vision of optimizing the way storage is consumed in the virtual data center. Its solutions eliminate the dependency on high performance and close proximity storage to enable any application to run on-demand with any storage – effectively decoupling the application from storage just as the hypervisor decoupled the application from the server hardware. Today, Atlantis ILIO is the only solution on the market that enables both Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and virtualized XenApp to run entirely in-memory without physical storage. Atlantis ILIO will be available soon for cloud-scale deployments of virtual servers such as databases, collaboration and mail servers.

Earlier this year, Atlantis Computing released Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI 4.0, the first solution that enables Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View customers to deliver persistent virtual desktops that are cheaper and faster than physical PCs right away while using their existing images, tools and processes. To view the product press release: http://www.atlantiscomputing.com/pr_20130226

About Atlantis Computing
Atlantis Computing, winner of the prestigious Best of VMworld and Best of Citrix Synergy awards, addresses the challenges of storage-intensive applications in private and public clouds: performance, cost, disaster recovery, and the ability to scale-out on demand. Atlantis ILIO software complements virtualization solutions from Citrix, Microsoft and VMware to optimize the use of data center storage by virtualized desktops and servers, automate large scale deployment and management, and lower implementation risks. Atlantis Computing is privately held and funded by Adams Street Partners, Cisco Systems, El Dorado Ventures and Partech International, with headquarters in Mountain View, California and offices in Europe. For more information, visit: www.atlantiscomputing.com or follow us on Twitter @AtlantisILIO.

About Adams Street Partners
Adams Street Partners is one of the largest managers of private equity investments for institutional investors around the world with more than $25 billion in assets under management. The firm operates as one cohesive global team, integrating expertise in three disciplines: primary, secondary and direct investments. Adams Street has a comprehensive perspective on the industry through its established relationships and experience in the private equity industry. Over the past four decades, the team at Adams Street has grown to 120 individuals based in five offices around the world — Chicago, London, Menlo Park, Beijing and Singapore. For more information, visit: http://www.adamsstreetpartners.com.

# # #

Atlantis Computing, Atlantis ILIO and Atlantis ILIO Diskless VDI, In-Memory VDI, Atlantis ILIO for XenApp, Atlantis ILIO FlexCloud and Atlantis ILIO Persistent VDI are trademarks of Atlantis Computing, Inc.  All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Enlightenment Capital has invested in Opera Solutions. Financial terms were not announced. Jersey City, N.J.-based Opera Solutions is a Big Data analytics firm. Other Opera investors Silver Lake Sumeru, Wipro Limited, Accel-KKR, Invus Financial Advisors, JGE Capital Management and Tola Capital.

PRESS RELEASE

Enlightenment Capital, an aerospace, defense & government-focused investment firm based in the Washington, DC area, has made an investment in Opera Solutions, LLC, a global leader in applying machine learning science and advanced Big Data predictive analytics to drive superior profit, performance, and decision-making for large enterprise and government customers.  Enlightenment will be a strategic partner going forward, in support of Opera Solutions Government Services.  Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are thrilled to be able to partner with Opera Solutions.  The company sits at the forefront of the rapidly growing Big Data analytics market, and enables institutions – in both the private and public sector – to translate massive amounts of disparate data into actionable intelligence,” said Devin Talbott, Managing Partner of Enlightenment Capital.

“We believe that Big Data has tremendous potential to drive productivity gains in the public sector and serve as an increasingly critical tool in our national security arsenal.  As an industry leader in predictive analytics, Opera Solutions has an incredible opportunity to support vital government services and the national security community, and we are excited at the prospect of helping in the execution of its growth strategy,” added Pierre Chao, Managing Partner of Enlightenment Capital.

Privately held Opera Solutions has attracted one of the industry’s largest groups of scientists specializing in machine learning, a critical discipline for extracting predictive patterns, or “Signals,” from very large data flows. The company deploys its science and technology in a range of “as a service” solutions for enterprises, government, global markets, healthcare, and other sectors.

Solutions and services for the government sector include SignalSensor™, which extracts threat and sentiment Signals from the world’s flow of open source online data.  The company is also a specialist in fraud detection, and in November, 2012, it was selected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide the advanced analytics to enhance operational controls and prevent fraud in federally funded Health Insurance Exchange Operations (“HIX”).

“We are delighted that Enlightenment Capital has made this investment,” said Arnab Gupta, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Opera Solutions.  “We are also looking forward to building a strategic partnership with them that leverages our core capabilities to use machine learning to extract valuable signals and patterns from massive data flows in support of both commercial and government entities.”

Enlightenment joins an existing investor base of leading technology investors and strategic investors supporting the company, including Silver Lake Sumeru, Wipro Limited, Accel-KKR, Invus Financial Advisors, JGE Capital Management, and Tola Capital.

About Opera Solutions
Opera Solutions (www.operasolutions.com); (@OperaSolutions), provides Big Data predictive and prescriptive analytics, delivered as an ongoing service, to businesses and government globally.  With approximately 200 machine learning scientists among its 700 employees, Opera Solutions is a global leader in using advanced techniques to extract value from Big Data.  Its solutions, software, and services combine science with technology and domain expertise, providing new, Big-Data-fueled pathways to profit and productivity.  Opera Solutions is headquartered in Jersey City, NJ, with other offices in North America, Europe, and Asia.  For more information, contact [email protected], or call 1-855-OPERA-22.

About Enlightenment Capital
Enlightenment Capital, a Washington, DC area based private investment firm, provides senior debt, mezzanine debt, and minority equity to small and mid-sized companies in the Aerospace, Defense & Government (ADG) sector.  The firm partners with management teams, equity sponsors, and those businesses that provide vital services, protect critical infrastructure, innovate aerospace solutions, safeguard national security, and endeavor to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.  More information is available at www.enlightencap.com.

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Tokai Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new treatments for prostate cancer, has raised $35.5 million in a Series E financing. The financing round included both current investors, Apple Tree Partners and Novartis Venture Funds, as well as undisclosed angel investors.

PRESS RELEASE

Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new treatments for prostate cancer, today announced that the company raised $35.5 million in a Series E financing based on encouraging clinical progress and investor support for galeterone (TOK-001), Tokai’s lead prostate cancer drug candidate. The proceeds will be used to expand the ongoing ARMOR2 Phase 2 clinical trial of galeterone in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and prepare for registration studies. The financing round included both current investors, Apple Tree Partners and Novartis Venture Funds, as well as undisclosed angel investors.

“We are extremely encouraged by the maturing data we are seeing from the ARMOR2 clinical trial,” said Seth Harrison, M.D., chairman of the Tokai Board of Directors and managing general partner, Apple Tree Partners. “This additional funding will allow Tokai to complete the ARMOR2 study in broad CRPC patient populations to streamline Phase 3 clinical development path for galeterone.”

“Based on its highly differentiated clinical profile, unique triple mechanism of action and the ARMOR2 clinical results to date, we believe that galeterone may be a promising new treatment option for all stages of CRPC,” commented Reinhard J. Ambros, Ph.D., global head of Novartis Venture Funds. “We are pleased to continue to support Tokai in the development of this important new prostate cancer therapy.”

ARMOR2 is the second study in Tokai’s ARMOR (Androgen Receptor Modulation Optimized for Response) clinical development program for the evaluation of galeterone. ARMOR2 is a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of a new oral formulation of galeterone in distinct populations of CRPC patients, including both metastatic and non-metastatic treatment-naïve and those who have progressed while taking Zytiga® (abiraterone acetate) or Xtandi® (enzalutamide). The primary endpoints of the study are reduction in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, and safety. The secondary endpoints include tumor responses by RECIST. Patients who respond to therapy will have the opportunity to continue treatment in an extension arm.

ARMOR2 follows the successfully completed ARMOR1 Phase 1 clinical trial in which an early formulation of galeterone demonstrated clinical activity and was well tolerated in patients with CRPC. The 49 patient dose-finding study was completed in 2012 and results were presented at the 2012 ASCO Annual Meeting. At the highest dose tested, significant PSA responses and tumor reduction rates were seen. There were no cases of secondary mineralocorticoid excess (ME), a clinical syndrome that is commonly associated with other CYP17 lyase inhibitors, observed and no concomitant prednisone therapy was required in patients in ARMOR1.

About Galeterone (TOK-001)
Galeterone is a proprietary small molecule, oral drug for the treatment of prostate cancer that disrupts androgen receptor signaling via a novel triple mechanism of action. In preclinical studies, galeterone acted as a highly selective CYP17 lyase inhibitor, as a potent androgen receptor antagonist, and decreased androgen receptor levels in prostate tumors – the only drug in development that has been shown to exhibit all three of these distinct properties. Results from the ARMOR1 Phase 1 clinical trial showed that galeterone demonstrated clinical activity and was well tolerated in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Galeterone is currently being evaluated in a Phase 2 study, ARMOR2, in patients with CRPC as part of the ARMOR (Androgen Receptor Modulation Optimized for Response) clinical development program.

About Tokai Pharmaceuticals
Tokai Pharmaceuticals is a U.S. biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new treatments for prostate cancer. The company’s lead drug candidate, galeterone (TOK- 001), is the first investigational new drug that can decrease overall androgen receptor levels in prostate tumors and in which three distinct mechanisms of action are combined to disrupt androgen receptor signaling in one oncotherapeutic. Galeterone is currently being evaluated in a Phase 2 study, ARMOR2, in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tokai was founded by Apple Tree Partners and is backed by Apple Tree and Novartis Venture Funds. For more information on the company and galeterone, please visit www.tokaipharma.com.

Zytiga is a registered trademark of Janssen Biotech Inc. Xtandi is a registered trademark of Astellas Pharma, Inc.

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BBC iPlayer has long been the go-to service for catching up on TV and radio shows. The web-based version has been available for years, and iOS and Android users have their own mobile versions to use on phone and tablets. Having been promised back in March BBC iPlayer is now available for Windows Phone 8.

In terms of functionality, there’s little to differentiate this from its Apple and Google counterparts. The app has been a long time coming, but in reality the BBC iPlayer app is little more than a wrapper for the mobile iPlayer website.

Both TV and radio content is available, and users can browse through programming using an EPG-style schedule, search through categories or check to see what is proving popular with other users. There is support for playing the radio in the background as well as Live Tiles

Anyone still holding out for a release for Windows 7.5 should stop holding their breath — such an app has been ruled out due to platform limitations. Head of BBC iPlayer, Dave Price, explains:

We’ve been unable to provide the same quality playback experience as on Windows Phone 8. This led to the joint decision not to make BBC iPlayer available on Windows Phone 7.5.

But if you are packing a Windows Phone 8, the app can be used to catch up with the last seven days of programming over wifi or 3G.

To get your fix of BBC programming, you can download a copy of the app from the Windows Phone store.

Security products that work across all of your digital devices from PCs to smartphones are nothing new — Norton One has been around for over a year — but now McAfee has joined the fray. LiveSafe includes virus protection, a password manager and encrypted cloud storage in a single package.

The most interesting feature is the secure online Personal Locker that gives users 1GB of storage to hold their sensitive documents, financial records, IDs and so on. This is secured using biometric authentication with voice, face and device recognition. It works using Intel Identity Protection Technology. This is a hardware authentication mechanism that’s built into the latest Intel processors. To access a file you need to enter a PIN, take a photo for facial recognition and read two messages to confirm your voice.

LiveSafe is compatible with Windows, iOS and Android and there’s no limit to how many devices you can use it on. It has a password manager that’s accessible across all devices so you’ll always be able to get at your online accounts on the move. There’s also a browser-accessible dashboard to allow you to control LiveSafe’s features from anywhere.

LiveSafe is currently available at an introductory price of $19.99 for a one year subscription and will cost $79.99 a year after that. It will come pre-installed on Dell Ultrabooks and PCs starting in June.

McAfee is a little late to the game here but the move away from providing trial versions on new PCs is clever and one other security companies will be watching closely. The Personal Locker should prove attractive to people who need access to private documents on the move too.

Photo credit: Andrea Danti/Shutterstock

Bayside Capital has completed an investment in Consolis, a European manufacturer of prefabricated concrete products. The investment, executed in partnership with private-equity sponsor LBO France, forms part of a comprehensive debt restructuring aimed at reducing indebtedness and providing fresh capital to support the company’s return to growth.

PRESS RELEASE

Bayside Capital (“Bayside”) today announced that an investment fund managed by Bayside has completed an investment in Consolis, a leading European manufacturer of prefabricated concrete products. The new-money investment, executed in partnership with private-equity sponsor LBO France, forms part of a comprehensive debt restructuring aimed at reducing indebtedness and providing fresh capital to support the company’s return to growth.

As part of the transaction, Bayside underwrote new super-senior credit facilities totaling €45 million, complementing a separate new-money investment of €45 million from sponsor LBO France. Other features of the transaction included the deferral of senior debt maturities and the conversion into equity-like instruments of approximately half of the senior debt and all of the junior debt.

The transaction is another example of Bayside’s ability to implement, within a short timeframe, complex financing solutions for companies facing a new-money need in the context of an unsustainable capital structure. Since 2009, Bayside has worked closely with a number of private-equity firms to jointly develop successful restructuring alternatives in such circumstances.

Lionel Laurant, Managing Director at Bayside Capital, commented: “We are very excited to back Consolis in this crucial phase of its development. Additional fresh capital, combined with the establishment of a sounder capital structure, will enable Consolis’ first-class management team to harness the company’s unmatched capabilities as it reaps the benefits from a recovery in its key markets”.

About Bayside Capital
Bayside Capital, an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, is an investment firm with approximately €3.5 billion under management. Focused on middle-market companies, Bayside Capital invests across several segments of the secondary debt capital markets with an emphasis on long-term returns. With twelve offices throughout the U.S. and Europe and over 250 investment professionals to draw upon, Bayside has the experience, resources, and flexibility to provide capital solutions quickly, and the strategic and operational expertise to help support its investments.

Bayside Capital is active across a wide spectrum of industries, including business services, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, food/agriculture, and specialty finance. With the ability to invest in all parts of the capital structure, Bayside is able to develop creative financing solutions and consummate transactions on an expedited basis.

Bayside Capital is a credit affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a leading global private investment firm with more than €9 billion of equity capital under management. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. Capital has invested in more than 200 companies worldwide and has developed an impressive track record for creating value for its partners and investors.

Media contacts

MHP Communications

Fern Hammond
T +44 (0) 203 128 8092
[email protected]

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Converting videos from one format to another can be a complicated business, so it’s no surprise that most conversion tools focus on ease of use above all else. But this can also mean the programs lose a great deal of functionality. Encoders such as FFmpeg — the engine behind many free converters — are absolutely packed with features, but the need for simplicity means most of these aren’t accessible to the end user.

There are some projects which take a different view, though, and TEncoder is a good example. This is a converter which isn’t afraid to expose options and settings, and at first glance this makes for a cluttered and intimidating interface. But look past that and you’ll find a tool which manages to be both powerful, and (once you know where everything is) generally very easy to use.

When it comes to importing your source videos, for instance, you can drag and drop them onto TEncoder, just as you’d expect. But the program also has an Add button which allows you to manually import individual files, a folder, even an entire folder tree — a very useful extra.

Cluttered? Yes. Once you’ve learned the basics, though, TEncoder is surprisingly easy to use

And it’s a similar story elsewhere. So if you’re in a hurry, or don’t need the program’s more advanced features, that’s not a problem. When converting videos to play on a mobile device, for instance, all you have to do is choose your hardware from the more than 800 profiles on offer. TEncoder will then set itself up accordingly. And once you’ve clicked “Encode” it’ll convert them for you, using a multi-threaded engine which delivers great performance.

If you do need more fine control, though, TEncoder provides access to all the usual settings: video and audio codecs, bitrates, resolution and frame rates, aspect ratio, output format and more. A Trim tool helps you select the part of the video you’d like to convert, and there’s good support for embedding subtitles into the finished movie.

There are also some advanced filters, including “Deinterlace” and “Crop”. But again, while these look intimidating, they’re implemented with care. We really had no idea whether selecting “Linear Blend” or “Kernel Deinterlace” would deliver the best results for our source video, for example, but it turned out this didn’t matter: the Deinterlace dialog includes a Preview button, which means you’re able to see the effects of each option before running the full conversion job.

And if you do manage to assemble a particular group of settings which you’ll use again, you don’t have to remember and re-enter them each time. Just save them as a custom profile and you’ll be able to recall them later in a couple of clicks.

TEncoder may have a complex interface, then, and even video experts may wonder precisely what some of its options will do. But the extra functionality doesn’t get in your way, and once you’ve learned the basics, the program turns out to be powerful, yet also easy to use. Give it a try.

Zoove Corp, a provider of a unique mobile phone number for content has secured a $15 million from existing series D investors, Rogers Venture Partners and Panorama Capital. The company’s early stage investors, Worldview Technology Partners and Highland Capital also invested in the business.

PRESS RELEASE

Zoove Corp, the exclusive provider of StarStar and StarStarMe, a unique mobile phone number that connects people with the things they care about most — great content, favorite brands, and one another — today announced that it has secured a strategic investment of $15 Million from existing series D investors, Rogers Venture Partners and Panorama Capital, along with additional investment from the company’s early stage investors, Worldview Technology Partners and Highland Capital. This new funding will allow Zoove to expand significantly through all areas of the business, with emphasis on product expansion, business development and marketing.
After securing relationships with all four major mobile carriers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless, Zoove became the first and only organization to offer unique vanity mobile numbers that allow brands to provide any content experience to consumers via a simple phone call. The company has signed significant deals with major U.S. brands including AT&T, CBS Radio, Dunkin’ Donuts, Ford, Hyatt Hotels, NFL, Viacom, and many more. As mobile commerce and adoption continue to rise exponentially, more and more companies realize the indispensable need for simple and successful mobile marketing tactics. As a result, Zoove has grown rapidly across media, entertainment, retail, travel, financial services, and even non-profit organizations.
With the new funding in place, Zoove plans to continue enhancement and expansion of the StarStar platform — including solutions for both enterprise companies and consumers. Most recently, the company announced StarStar Me, which allows individuals to obtain their own vanity phone number, such as **CHLOE or **MOVIEGUY, through all major carriers. The company will continue to roll out enhancements to the StarStar Me mobile app and experience, as well as continue to expand their enterprise marketing and sales initiatives with an emphasis on demand generation.
“We invest in companies that are innovators in fast-growing markets, and Zoove is a clear leader in mobile marketing,” said Mike Lee, General Partner at Rogers Venture Partners. “Zoove has quickly attracted big name brands from many different industries, and is committed to expanding its portfolio across consumer and business brands.”
“As early Series A investors in Zoove, we have been immensely pleased with the company’s rapid innovation and growth to date, and we look forward to more in the future,” said Mike Orsak, General Partner of Worldview Technology Partners. “We are convinced that StarStar is a game-changer for the mobile industry, and the recent adoption, new clients and consumers signed shows the industry believes this as well.”
“This funding is a tremendous endorsement of our technology, growth and potential. I am extremely excited about the future for this company, the level of expertise and proprietorship behind the products and almost limitless opportunity for mobile marketing across the globe,” states Joe Gillespie, CEO of Zoove Corp. “We are proud that these venture funds have chosen to invest in Zoove, enabling us to accelerate our national growth.”
To learn more about the StarStar solutions, please visit www.zoove.com or simply call **STARSTAR from any mobile device.
About Zoove
Zoove Corporation is the exclusive provider of StarStar and StarStarMe, a unique mobile phone number that connects people with the things they care about most — great content, favorite brands, and one another. Enabled across all major U.S. carriers, the StarStar platform empowers marketers to leverage media, mobile and marketing through a single platform, in order to create any offline-to-online brand experience they desire. StarStar drives millions of calls every year for the world’s top brands including CBS, Dunkin’ Donuts, Ford, Hyatt, NFL and Verizon Wireless. With offices in Chicago, New York and San Francisco, Zoove’s solutions and mobile expertise enable marketers to deliver a more relevant on-the-go customer experience with unprecedented real-time metrics and media efficacy. To learn more, please visit www.zoove.com or simply call **STARSTAR from any mobile device.
About Highland Capital
At Highland Capital Partners, we have always been focused on one goal: to help great people build great companies. Since our inception in 1988, we have invested in over 200 seed, early and growth stage companies — 90 of which have gone public or been acquired to date. We emphasize a team-oriented approach in providing the right mix of strategic guidance, hands-on leadership and deep industry domain expertise in helping entrepreneurs and their teams to become market-leading organizations. Visit www.hcp.com for more information.
About Panorama Capital
Panorama Capital was founded in 2005 by a team of experienced venture investors who had worked together for many years managing the venture business at JPMorgan Partners. During our tenure at JPMP, we completed 25 IPO’s and successfully sold more than 20 companies to strategic buyers. Our investment philosophy is to seek out and invest in exceptional management teams building companies that can become market leaders in their categories. Whether a business is at the start-up phase or experiencing rapid growth, Panorama seeks to invest in entrepreneurs who are clearly passionate about their company and skilled at navigating the complex challenges that lay ahead. More at www.panoramacapital.com
About Rogers Ventures
Rogers Venture Partners (“RVP”) was established in 2012 as a newly minted $150M venture capital fund headquartered in Palo Alto. The RVP team brings a wealth of global operating and investing experience. At RVP, every one of the partners has an operating background and, most importantly, all came from the high tech industry. As a result, our partners are deeply rooted in the operating ecosystem, allowing portfolio companies to better develop key partnerships and establish meaningful customer contracts. We look to take active roles within each portfolio company and are committed to working towards a common vision of revolutionizing the status quo.

About Worldview Technology Partners
Worldview Technology Partners was founded in 1996 and is a leading venture capital firm focused on investing in and building leading U.S. technology companies. Their comprehensive business development services help their portfolio companies succeed in U.S. and international markets. The Worldview team — now on their fourth fund — has both the experience and the resources to invest in a broad range of information technology markets, including communications, semiconductors, Internet/digital media, wireless, enterprise infrastructure and software.

Contact Information
Contact:
Mark Ballard
212-680-0179
Email Contact

The post Zoove Secures Series E Rogers Venture Partners, Panorama Capital appeared first on peHUB.

Locust Walk Partners, a transaction advisory firm that supports biopharmaceutical companies, has hired Chris Ehrlich as managing director. Based in San Francisco, Ehrlich will be responsible for expanding and managing the firm’s west coast practice.

PRESS RELEASE

Locust Walk Partners, LLC, a transaction advisory firm that supports biopharmaceutical companies, is pleased to announce that biotech industry and venture capital veteran Chris Ehrlich has joined the firm as Managing Director. Based in San Francisco, Mr. Ehrlich will be responsible for expanding and managing the firm’s west coast practice.
Prior to Locust Walk, Mr. Ehrlich was a Managing Director at InterWest Partners, during which time he served on the boards of KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen) and Biomimetic Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by Wright Medical Technologies). He currently sits on the boards of Transcept Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TSPT), Carbylan BioSurgery and Xenon Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining InterWest, Mr. Ehrlich was Director, Licensing and Business Development at Purdue Pharma. In this position, he was responsible for developing and executing a biologic oncology strategy, including in-licensing key intellectual properties, establishing and managing collaborations with biotechnology companies and participating in the commercial operations of Purdue BioPharma, a biotechnology company located in Princeton, NJ. Prior to joining Purdue, Mr. Ehrlich worked in business development at Genentech, in venture capital at The U.S. Russia Investment Fund, and in biotechnology strategy at LEK Consulting.
“I am very pleased to be joining Locust Walk Partners at this inflection point in its lifecycle,” commented Mr. Ehrlich. “The firm has built a high quality reputation for and demonstrated a track record of success in executing high value strategic transactions. It is an ideal platform from which to help companies achieve their business and corporate development objectives.”
“We are thrilled to have an individual of Chris’ caliber on the Locust Walk team and look forward to the significant value he will bring to our firm and our clients,” said Jay Mohr, Managing Director. Geoff Meyerson, Managing Director, added “Chris’ breadth of contacts and industry knowledge will be an asset to our clients.”
About Locust Walk Partners
Locust Walk Partners has an established reputation for executing high-value transactions for prominent biopharmaceutical clients. Our teams are composed of seasoned operating executives who bring insight, analytics and discipline into every deal process and strategic engagement.
We are located in the biotech hubs of Cambridge, MA and San Francisco, CA. www.locustwalkpartners.com
Contact Information
Contact Information:
Jay Mohr
[email protected]
617-300-0174

Geoff Meyerson
[email protected]
617-300-0162

Chris Ehrlich
[email protected]
415-994-0582

The post Locust Walk Partners Appoints MD appeared first on peHUB.

Anomaly: Warzone Earth surprised a lot of people back in 2011 when it was released for the PC, because it turned the tower defense genre on its head by allowing players to go on the offense and attack stationary towers with their units.

Since then, 11 Bit Studios has worked on a full-fledged sequel that not only introduces fresh towers, units, and a new story, but … (read more)

On April 8th, Roku rolled out its latest set-top box, known as the Roku 3. The little device made a splash with its new user interface and unique remote control that allows customers to plug in headphones for private listening, while still sitting back on the couch or moving around the home.

Now Roku’s Tom Markworth announces that the popular new UI will start becoming available on older devices. “We’ve begun rolling out the new interface to supported Roku players as a free upgrade, and we know many of you have been waiting impatiently” Markworth states.

The latest version is 5.0, build 804X, and will be coming to Roku 2 XS (model 3100), Roku 2 XD (model 3050), Roku 2 HD (model 3000), Roku LT (models 2400 & 2450), Roku HD (model 2500) and the Roku Streaming Stick (models 3400 & 3420). The set-top box maker promises all customers will be receive this within the next two weeks. However, users can force the update by heading to Settings > Software update > Check now. The new Search feature is available in the US only, so those in other markets shouldn’t get their hopes up.

Earlier Roku models (not named above) will not receive the update, but the device is not expensive, so if you are using one that is incompatible, then it may be time to move on to a newer model.

Software AG, the German software company, wants to make it easy for people who can’t write code to plan, build and run their own business applications, just as people with programming chops can build on top of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings such as Engine Yard and Heroku. Toward that end, it’s unveiled a new line of products, Software AG Live.

The software line includes a trio of components that function on their own but can work well together: a tool for collaborating and laying out the functions, processes, inputs and outputs of an application; a system for assembling and tweaking pieces of the application itself; and a vehicle for integrating data from existing applications. The applications that come out of Software AG Live can also run on mobile devices, which falls in with the trend of using PaaSes to build mobile apps.

With this PaaS, “subject-matter experts are now empowered to build their own solutions and apps,” said Ivo Totev (pictured), head of Software AG’s cloud business unit and a member of the company’s executive board.

The platform is available now, and the other pieces are on the way. They will all be able to run on the Software AG cloud hosted on Rackspace, a spokesman said, but can be deployed on other clouds or on premises.

Last month SoftwareAG said that it had acquired LongJump, which previously provided part of the new software bundle. Now, a few weeks later, Software AG is turning around and announcing the full line under a new name.

“This really opens up some new potential audiences to Software AG,” said John Rymer, a Forrester Research VP and principal analyst focusing on application development. “If they can get the integration right, they can actually offer a pretty broad spectrum of development experiences and runtimes compared to the competition.” Competitors in the area of visual and cloud-based platforms for application development include Mendix, Rymer said.

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