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  • Apple closes in on 50 billion app downloads, offers $10,000 to the person who hits it

    Android may rule the roost when it comes to the mobile market these days, but Apple is certainly not faring poorly with its iPhone offering. Whenever its App Store hits a new milestone the company always makes a big production of it, for both celebration, as well as publicity.

    In January of 2011 the Store hit 10 billion app downloads, a milestone that took nearly three years to achieve. However, adoption increased and, in little more than a year (March of 2012), 25 billion apps downloaded was the new cause for celebration. Now, again in just over a year, that number has been doubled.

    Apple is currently awaiting the download counter to turn over the 50 billion mark, and to commemorate this event, the company is offering a prize of $10,000 U.S. (in gift card form) to the lucky person who grabs that app. Regardless of what that app is, it will certainly become someone’s new favorite. This time around the giveaway does not stop there either — the next 50 app installations to follow will also be rewarded. Each will receive a $500 gift card.

    The counter was approaching 49,252,000,000 as of this writing, and the rate is increasing. The big event seems destined to take place within the next 24 hours. So, if you were thinking of grabbing some new apps, this would be a wise time to do so.

    Photo Credits: Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock

  • Will The Next Xbox Be Called The Xbox Fusion?

    It’s pretty much a given that the next Xbox won’t be called the Xbox 720. As for the actual name, we just don’t know yet. Some have speculated that it would be called the Xbox 8 or Xbox Infinity, but a recent domain name grab from Microsoft points to an entirely different name.

    Fusible reports that Microsoft has registered multiple domains for the name “Xbox Fusion.” Now, Microsoft registers a lot of Xbox-themed domains, but what sets this one apart is the sheer number of domains it has registered. Aside from XboxFusion.com, there’s also an XboxFusion.info, XboxFusion.biz, XboxFusion.co.uk and more.

    The previous rumored name for the next Xbox was Xbox 8. That name came about after Microsoft grabbed a couple of Xbox 8-related domains from a Chinese cybersquatter in July of last year. In that case, however, Microsoft only obtained Xbox8.us and Xbox8.org. The Xbox8.com domain is still owned by somebody in China thus making the XboxFusion name that much more likely.

    Some may gawk at the name Xbox Fusion for being silly, but it really does sum up what Microsoft is seemingly attempting with its next home console. It’s no secret that Microsoft wants to take over the living room with its Xbox brand, and all the rumors we’ve heard thus far point to Microsoft fusing the world of console gaming with that of living room entertainment. That strategy is most apparent in the rumor that says the next Xbox will have an HDMI-in to route a cable box through. Doing so would provide an Xbox overlay on top of your TV setup so consumers would never have to leave the Xbox experience.

    Of course, all of this could be wrong. Microsoft may be acquiring these domains for the inevitable reveal of Fuzion Frenzy 3 for the next Xbox.

  • Klöckner Pentaplast Prices Notes

    Klöckner Pentaplast, a producer of rigid plastic films for packaging, has priced 225 million euros in Senior PIK notes, the company announced Friday. Klöckner Pentaplast is a portfolio company of SVP Global. Proceeds will be used to partially refinance Preferred Equity Certificates that were issued when the company was acquired by a group led by SVP Global in a June 2012 recapitalization, the company said.

    PRESS RELEASE
    Klöckner Pentaplast (the “Company”) announced today that Kleopatra Holdings 1 (the “Issuer”), a holding company of the Klöckner Group outside the restricted group for the extant senior secured notes, has priced €225 million aggregate principal amount of Senior PIK Notes due 2017 (the “Notes”) at par. The Notes will bear interest at a rate of 10.250% cash / 11.000% PIK to be paid semi-annually. The Company anticipates that consummation of the offering will occur on May 8, 2013, and intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to partially refinance Preferred Equity Certificates (“PECs”) that were issued when the Company was acquired in a June 2012 recapitalization by a group of investors led by SVP Global. Remaining proceeds will be used to fund general corporate purposes and pay transaction related fees and expenses.

    The Notes will be offered only to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on the exemption from registration set forth in Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and outside the United States to non-U.S. persons in reliance on the exemption from registration set forth in Regulation S under the Securities Act. The Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act, or the securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction, and may not be offered or sold in the United States without registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities or blue sky laws and foreign securities laws.

    The Company is the world’s leading producer of rigid plastic films for pharmaceutical, medical device, food, electronics, and general-purpose thermoform packaging, as well as printing and specialty applications and packaging solutions. Founded in 1965 in Montabaur, Germany, the Company has grown from its initial facility to 18 current global production facilities in 11 countries on four continents. The Company has sales of over €1.2 billion and employs more than 3,000 people committed to serving customers worldwide.

    The post Klöckner Pentaplast Prices Notes appeared first on peHUB.

  • Houston Airport Shooting Ends in Suicide, Note and Facebook Posts Left Behind

    A man fired multiple shots from a handgun in Bush Intercontinental Airport on Thursday before committing suicide. No one but the shooter was injured.

    Houston’s KHOU news is reporting that the man was 29-year-old Carnell Moore from Beaumont, Texas. The TV news station also reported that Moore left behind a suicide note stating he had a “monster within” and coloring the shooting as a suicide-by-cop situation.

    Over the course of the week, Moore had posted cryptic messages to his Facebook account about “staring death in the face” and stating, “This Life Will Crash Tomorrow!”

    Houston airport shooter's Facebook posts

    Witnesses to the shooting told KHOU that Moore simply walked into terminal B at the airport and began firing his weapon. A U.S. Homeland Security agent is reported to have fired on Moore as the shooter fired a gun at himself. An autopsy will be performed to determine which bullet ended Moore’s life.

  • Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Dies Of Liver Failure

    Jeff Hanneman, one of two guitarists for the legendary heavy metal band Slayer, has died of liver failure. He was 49. The above image currently appears on the band’s official site, where they shared the following statement:

    Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home. Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed.

    A couple years back, Hanneman began suffering from a skin disease called necrotizing fasciitis (which ironically sounds like it could have been the name of a Slayer song). This was believed to have stemmed from a spider bite. Guitar World shares a statement that band made in 2011:

    “As you know, Jeff was bitten by a spider more than a year ago, but what you may not have known was that for a couple of days after he went to the ER, things were touch-and-go. There was talk that he might have to have his arm amputated, and we didn’t know if he was going to pull through at all. He was in a medically-induced coma for a few days and had several operations to remove the dead and dying tissue from his arm. So, understand, he was in really, really bad shape. It’s been about a year since he got out of the hospital, and since then, he had to learn to walk again, he’s had several painful skin grafts, he’s been in rehab doing exercises to regain the strength in his arm; but best of all, he’s been playing guitar.”

    In February, bandmate Kerry King had reportedly indicated that Hanneman’s health was still an issue, though it’s not entirely clear at this point whether the liver failure is directly related to the illness described.

    Hanneman was a founding member of Slayer. In fact, the band was formed in 1981 when Hanneman and King met while trying out for another band, and ultimately just decided to start their own. Slayer would go on to become one of the most influential bands in the history of the heavy metal genre. I think it’s safe to say that no other band, apart from possibly Metallica has had as much influence on modern day metal.

    Slayer may not have achieved the mainstream success that Metallica has, but in the metal world, they’re just as big. Slayer did not produce songs that catered to radio play as Metallica did. This is about as close as they came to radio-friendly (keep in mind, they came up in the era before the Internet and satellite radio):

    Slayer’s songs almost always took on life’s darker realities (and occasionally non-realities). Their “softer” songs tended to be about real-life serial killers. They didn’t have “Whiskey in the Jar” covers or sports arena anthems like “Enter Sandman” to propel them up the charts.

    Still, Slayer’s influence has been heavily felt in the genre, without question, but also across other genres. The band’s song “Angel of Death” was used as the basis for a Public Enemy song, for example:

    King played on the Beastie Boys’ classic Licensed to Ill album. The band has also collaborated with Ice-T and Atari Teenage Riot (who also sampled the band’s “Dead Skin Mask” for another song).

    Even Tori Amos took on “Raining Blood”:

    Search “Slayer cover” on YouTube, and you’ll find an endless plethora of bands and individuals trying to emulate what the band and Hanneman have given the world.

    I had the pleasure of meeting Hanneman (and the rest of the band) one time after a show about thirteen of fourteen years ago. They were all incredibly cool and friendly, ready to chit chat with complete strangers, as they must have been doing night after night on tour. I won’t pretend that my brief encounter with Hanneman was anything more than that, but it always struck me how a band like that who has such massive fame (at least among its target audience) was that friendly to its fans. Plenty of others (including those with much less fame) are not like that. I returned to the same venue to see them again a few years later.

    There are no doubt countless others with similar, and probably more interesting tales to tell of meeting Hanneman at shows, but many of his peers in the music world also have fond memories of him. Here are a few tweets from fans and friends:

    There’s plenty more where that came from.

  • Reuters – Carlo di Florio Departs SEC

    The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s national examination program is leaving the agency, in what marks the latest major personnel change since Mary Jo White took over as head of the SEC last month, the SEC said Thursday. Carlo di Florio, who was hired more than three years ago to help revamp the agency’s examinations program in the wake of the Bernard Madoff scandal, is leaving to lead a new risk and strategy division at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Wall Street industry-funded brokerage watchdog. He will be replaced by Andrew Bowden, who currently serves as deputy director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations.

    (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s national examination program is leaving the agency, in what marks the latest major personnel change since Mary Jo White took over as head of the SEC last month, the SEC said Thursday.

    Carlo di Florio, who was hired more than three years ago to help revamp the agency’s examinations program in the wake of the Bernard Madoff scandal, is leaving to lead a new risk and strategy division at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Wall Street industry-funded brokerage watchdog.

    He will be replaced by Andrew Bowden, who currently serves as deputy director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance, Inspections and Examinations (OCIE).

    “Carlo has been an outstanding leader of the National Exam Program and has made a lasting impact on the SEC by working with his team to comprehensively strengthen the agency’s examination program,” said White in a statement.

    Di Florio was the second high-profile SEC official to announce his departure on Thursday, and the latest in a string of major staffing changes within the agency.

    Earlier in the day, the SEC said it was also losing 13-year veteran David Bergers, who heads the Boston Regional Office and was also serving as deputy director of the Enforcement Division.

    Last month, White also appointed former federal prosecutors Andrew Ceresney and George Canellos to serve as co-directors of the Enforcement Division, as well as White House attorney Anne Small to be the new general counsel.

    She is said to still be reviewing candidates for top positions in the Trading and Markets Division. Candidates include Joseph Lombard, an attorney who once advised former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt, and Virtu Financial LLC executive Chris Concannon.

    MAJOR SHAKE-UP

    Di Florio was first named director of the OCIE in January 2010.

    At the time the SEC was still under the gun for missing the red flags about Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

    The year prior, the SEC’s then-Inspector General David Kotz had released a scathing investigative report which found that SEC examiners had missed numerous opportunities to uncover Madoff’s fraud because they were too inexperienced and narrowly focused in their reviews.

    At one point, the report also found that two different examinations were going on at the same time in different offices. The examiners only learned of the duplication after hearing it from Madoff himself.

    Di Florio was credited with breathing new life into the examinations program.

    He nationalized the examinations structure at the SEC to help improve communications and the flow of information, and created a risk-focused examinations strategy.

    He also took a similar approach that former SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami took when revamping the Enforcement Division by creating specialized working groups for derivatives, hedge funds, private equity, valuation, structured products, and market structure, among others.

    In a separate announcement Thursday, FINRA said di Florio will start his new job on June 24.

    This is the second time this week that FINRA has snagged an SEC alumnus for a new position there.

    On Tuesday FINRA said it hired Jonathan Sokobin, who once served as acting director of the SEC’s division of risk, strategy and financial innovation and most recently held a high-level position at an office in the U.S. Treasury Department.

    The post Reuters – Carlo di Florio Departs SEC appeared first on peHUB.

  • Did you wink at me or are you taking a photo?

    As if the Google Gaze wasn’t enough to get you strange looks in the street, now there’s a new app for Google Glass users that lets you take a photo simply by winking.

    The Winky app was revealed yesterday by developer Mike DiGiovanni on his Google+ page he says:

    You might not think it’s hard to say “Ok, Glass Take a Picture” or even just tap a button. But it’s a context switch that takes you out of the moment, even if just for a second. Winking lets you lifelog with little to no effort. I’ve taken more pictures today than I have the past 5 days thanks to this.

    Currently Winky is only available as Android source code so it needs to be compiled before it can be used but since most Glass users are currently developers and other techy types that shouldn’t be a problem.

    So, next time somebody winks at you it’s important to check if they’re wearing a Google headset in order to avoid embarrassment. Aside from the fact that technology seems to be turning us all into twitching loons, there would appear to be endless potential for misunderstandings here, “Honestly, officer I was only taking a photograph”.

    Photo Credit: Vadim Ivanov/Shutterstock

  • 70′s Street Machines: The Website

    70's Street Machines

    The sheer amount of AWESOME that you’re about to witness by clicking on the link below cannot be transcribed into words. Therefore I encourage you to simply click, turn up your speakers and revel in all that is, the 1970′s.

    Source: 70sStreetMachines

  • The Employment Situation in April

    While more work remains to be done, today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we remain focused on pursuing policies to speed job creation and expand the middle class, as we continue to dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007.

    Today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that private sector businesses added 176,000 jobs last month. Total non-farm payroll employment rose by 165,000 jobs in April. The February and March employment estimates were revised up by a total of 114,000 jobs. The economy has now added private sector jobs every month for 38 straight months, and a total of 6.8 million jobs has been added over that period.  Over 800,000 private sector jobs have been added over the last four months.

    The household survey showed that the unemployment rate edged down from 7.6 percent in March to 7.5 percent in April, the lowest rate since December 2008. The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 63.3 percent in April.

    read more

  • Checkpoint Completes CheckView Sale to Platinum Equity

    Checkpoint Systems Inc. has completed the previously-announced sale of its CheckView brand to Platinum Equity, a California-based private equity firm. The sale includes all continuing business operations and assets associated with the U.S. and Canadian retail security-oriented CheckView organization. Financial terms of the deal were not released.

    PRESS RELEASE

    Checkpoint Systems, Inc. CKP +0.18% today announced that it has completed the sale of its U.S. and Canadian CheckView(R) business to an affiliate of Platinum Equity, a California-based private equity firm. On March 25, 2013, the Company announced that it had reached a definitive agreement with Platinum Equity to acquire all continuing business operations and assets associated with the U.S. and Canadian CheckView business.

    Checkpoint Systems, Inc.
    Checkpoint Systems is a global leader in shrink management, merchandise visibility and apparel labeling solutions. Checkpoint enables retailers and their suppliers to reduce shrink, improve shelf availability and leverage real-time data to achieve operational excellence. Checkpoint solutions are built upon more than 40 years of RF technology expertise, diverse shrink management offerings, a broad portfolio of apparel labeling solutions, market-leading RFID applications, innovative high-theft solutions and its Web-based Check-Net(R) data management platform. As a result, Checkpoint customers enjoy increased sales and profits by improving supply-chain efficiencies, by facilitating on-demand label printing and by providing a secure open-merchandising environment enhancing the consumer’s shopping experience. For more information, visit www.checkpointsystems.com.

    Forward-Looking Statement
    This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “seek,” or “will.” By their nature, forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Any such forward-looking statements may involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results encompassed within the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include: the impact upon operations of legal compliance matters or internal controls review, improvement and remediation, including the detection of wrongdoing, improper activities, or circumvention of internal controls; our ability to integrate acquisitions and to achieve our financial and operational goals for our acquisitions; changes in international business conditions; foreign currency exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations; lower than anticipated demand by retailers and other customers for our products; slower commitments of retail customers to chain-wide installations and/or source tagging adoption or expansion; possible increases in per unit product manufacturing costs due to less than full utilization of manufacturing capacity as a result of slowing economic conditions or other factors; our ability to provide and market innovative and cost-effective products; the development of new competitive technologies; our ability to maintain our intellectual property; competitive pricing pressures causing profit erosion; the availability and pricing of component parts and raw materials; possible increases in the payment time for receivables as a result of economic conditions or other market factors; changes in regulations or standards applicable to our products; the ability to successfully implement global cost reductions in operating expenses including, field service, sales, and general and administrative expense, and our manufacturing and supply chain operations without significantly impacting revenue and profits; our ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting; and additional matters disclosed in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities laws.

    Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

    The post Checkpoint Completes CheckView Sale to Platinum Equity appeared first on peHUB.

  • Apple is ‘bleeding market share’

    Apple Smartphone Market Share 2013
    According to recent estimates, Apple’s share of the smartphone market took a big hit in the first quarter this year. Market research firm Strategy Analytics estimates that the 37.4 million iPhones Apple sold last quarter were good for 17.9% of the global smartphone market, down from the 22.8% of the market Apple controlled in the same quarter last year. With no savior expected until September at the earliest — CEO Tim Cook recently said Apple is working on new products that will launch beginning this fall — Apple stands to continue losing market share until the iPhone 5S, and perhaps a new low-end iPhone as well, launch later this year.

    Continue reading…

  • Unorthodox new pets in the TED office

    TED-antsWe at TED have a new addition to the office: a space-age ant farm!

    The Ant Column Cylinder Ant Farm arrived at our office last week. It’s a six-inch tube filled with a nutrient-rich blue goo. We added ants ordered from Ants Alive into the equation and within a few hours, the ants had built a complicated series of tunnels in the goo and looked very at home in their new habitat.

    The blue goo that fills the ant farm was originally developed for a higher purpose; researchers at the University of Colorado created it out of seaweed extract to see how the insects would behave in space. (Scientists have been sending animals into orbit since the 1940s. See: Laika the Russian space dog.) The gel was requested by a group of New York high school students who dreamed up an experiment in 2000 to see how ants would tunnel in zero gravity — if they would get disoriented or stay focused like their relatives on earth. The ants were finally launched into space in 2003 aboard the the space shuttle Columbia. However, tragedy struck when the shuttle disintegrated upon re-entry to the atmosphere, killing all crew members aboard.

    A decade later, the goo is now available commercially. It contains amino acids, sugars and fungicides to fulfil all the ants’ nutritional needs — and it makes for ant farms that look far more interesting than your standard sand-and-dirt variety.

    So why are ants the perfect pet for TED HQ? They value community, they are smart and industrious, plus a little bit quirky — like us. Check out a photo of the ants as their tunnels progress.

    This isn’t the first time TED has expressed awe and admiration for creepy crawlies. Below, a selection of TED and TEDx talks featuring our favorite arthropods.

  • CTPartners Executive Search Buys Augmentum Consulting

    Publicly traded CTPartners Executive Search Inc. has acquired Augmentum Consulting Ltd., a executive search firm based in London. Previously, Augmentum had been operating as Amrop Augmentum. Terms of the deal were not released.

    PRESS RELEASE
    CTPartners Executive Search Inc. (nyse mkt:CTP), a leading executive search firm, today announced that it has acquired Augmentum Consulting Ltd., a premier executive search firm based in London. Prior to this transaction, Augmentum had been operating as Amrop Augmentum.

    Augmentum Consulting has 13 client-facing consultants working for 20 of the FTSE 100, a number of Fortune 500 companies, and innovative and entrepreneurial market leaders. The company works across most industry verticals, and has specific expertise in the Professional Service & Outsourcing; Technology, Media & Telecommunications; Industrial; Automotive; Consumer; Retail; Sport & Leisure; and Financial Services industries. These areas of strength also complement CTPartners’ existing UK business. In addition, Augmentum has a leading edge Non-Executive Directorship (NED) practice which offers training and recruitment services.

    “With a reputation of delivering complex hiring mandates for leading global organizations across industries, the combination of the two firms in the UK market and globally will provide a strong competitive advantage and enhanced opportunities,” commented Brian Sullivan, CEO of CTPartners. “Acquiring Augmentum is consistent with our growth strategy and the transaction will have an immediate positive financial impact.”

    Guy Barnes, Managing Director of Augmentum said, “CTPartners is the quality leader among global search firms known for generating outstanding results for its clients. Brian and I have known each other for five years and share the passion of quality search execution which has been the underlying growth driver for both of our firms. We are pleased to join the CTPartners’ team and believe that with our firms coming together we will offer unprecedented executive recruitment services to our clients.”

    About CTPartners

    CTPartners is a leading performance-driven executive search firm serving clients across the globe. Committed to a philosophy of partnering with its clients, CTPartners offers a proven record in C-Suite, senior executive, and board searches, as well as expertise serving private equity and venture capital firms.

    With origins dating back to 1980, CTPartners serves clients with a global organization of more than 400 professionals and employees, offering expertise in board advisory services and executive recruiting services in the financial services, life sciences, industrial, professional services, retail and consumer, and technology, media and telecom industries. Headquartered in New York, CTPartners has 22 offices in 15 countries.

    The post CTPartners Executive Search Buys Augmentum Consulting appeared first on peHUB.

  • Teen Mom Banned From Yearbook For “Promoting Teen Pregnancy”

    A young mom in North Carolina is battling her high school after administrators pulled her senior picture from the yearbook, saying that the photo–which was taken with her son–promotes teen pregnancy.

    17-year old Caitlin Tiller says when she was told she could include a “prop” in her senior photo that best represented her, she immediately knew she wanted her son to pose with her.

    “He helped me get to where I am today,” said Tiller. “I wouldn’t be the person I am today without him. He has helped me achieve my goal to graduate high school and go forward with my dreams.”

    Unlike many teen mothers, Caitlin has had the full support of her parents and her son’s father and, with some hard work and determination, was able to graduate early. She now attends college classes and works 30 hours a week, and is disappointed that the school chose not to include the photo she wanted to be in the yearbook.

    “She took responsibility,” said Tiller’s mother, Karen Morgan. “They should be proud that the students are willing to stay in school, graduate and make something of themselves and not try and hide it.”

    The school hasn’t commented on the matter except to say that a student’s school picture should be all about them, rather than including family members.

  • The Nook HD and HD+ Get Google Play, Knocking Down The Wall On The Barnes & Noble Android Garden

    scaled-1892

    The Nook HD and HD+ got a great update late last night (via Engadget), as Barnes & Noble finally moved away from its closed and system-specific app and media ecosystem. The two Android tablets now offer Google Play, and new devices will ship with the app pre-loaded, while existing owners can get it via a software update over-the-air or via direct download.

    Other changes with this update include the introduction of some stock Android apps, including Gmail, Maps and Chrome (which replaces the Nook’s existing web browser as the default option). Essentially, Barnes & Noble is turning the Nook HD line into a very cheap Android tablet play, and not in the limited way it was doing so before.

    Where once the Nook brand was a reader first, with Android-powered full-color readers with some tablet functionality, now it looks like we’ll see Barnes & Noble embrace the tablet identity much more fully. Another sign that the book seller is banking on tablets as a much broader attempt at reaching customers is the fact that the Nook Tablet and Color don’t get the Play update, meaning we could see those left behind in terms of future hardware updates.

    John took a look at the updated Nook HD+, and found it impressive, especially at $269, or a full $60 cheaper than the cheapest iPad (16GB Wi-Fi iPad mini). The problem, though, was summed up in John’s conclusion: the Nook HD+ is a great upgrade as a reader, but not necessarily a real tablet competitor. Opening up the broader Android software market place and its selection of tablet apps definitely helps to change that.

    The Nook line could be the key to Barnes & Noble’s future, but right now it’s also a weight hanging around its neck, as slow sales of the Simple Touch e-reader prompted a fire sale to help move more HD+ inventory, and the Nook division lost cash in the most recent fiscal quarter. There’s still an opportunity for a cheap Android tablet to capture the hearts and minds of consumers, however, and Nook is now in a better position to capitalize on that now that its ecosystem wall has come down.

  • Keyboard Cat & Nyan Cat Creators Sue Warner Bros

    The creators of two popular cat-related internet memes are suing Warner Bros for using their creations in video games dating backt to 2009.

    The plaintiffs in the case, Charles Schmidt and Christopher Orlando Torres*, are the creators of Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat, respectively. They allege that Warner Bros’ use of the characters in various Scribblenauts games amounts to copyright and trademark infringement. The game’s developer, 5th Cell, is also named in the suit.

    Here’s what Schmidt and Torres are accusing Warner Bros of:

    Plaintiffs accuse Warner Bros and 5th Cell of including, without any licenses or authorizations, the Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat characters in their original Scribblenauts videogame released in 2009, the 2010 Super Scribblenauts, 2011 Scribblenauts Remix, and the 2012 Scribblenauts Unlimited. Defendants are accused of shamelessly using identifying “Nyan Cat” and “Keyboard Cat” by name to promote and market their games. Plaintiffs claim that Warner Bros and 5th Cell’s trademark infringement was willful and intentional and are requesting an award of treble damages

    Maybe the best part of this whole thing is the lawyers’ descriptions of the memes. Especially Nyan Cat:

    “Nyan Cat is a cartoon. Nyan cat, a character with a cat’s face and body resembling a horizontal breakfast bar with pink frosting sprinkled with light red dots, flies across the screen, leaving a stram of exhaust in the form of a bright rainbow in its wake.”

    The lawsuit explains hows both videos were viral sensations, Keyboard Cat being named to many “greatest viral videos” lists and Nyan Cat winning the 2012 Webby award for “meme of the year.”

    Both Schmidt and Torres have copyrights for their memes registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Schmidt has two pending trademark applications and Torres has one.

    *It’s important to note that Torres created the Nyan Cat animation, but is not the one to set it to that famously annoying music and throw it up on YouTube.

    [Milord & Associates via Ars Technica]

  • Nook Inks Deal With Google To Add Google Play To Its Nook HD Tablets

    If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

    The Wall Street Journal reports that Barnes & Noble has entered into a partnership with Google to bring the Google Play store to the company’s line of Nook HD and HD+ tablets. The addition of Google Play will bring over 700,000 apps to the Nook platform – a huge upgrade from the 10,000 or so apps currently available in the Nook store.

    So, what convinced Nook to start playing nice with Google? Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch says that Nook’s poor holiday sales told him that consumers don’t want an e-reader that’s also a tablet. Instead, consumers want a multi-purpose tablet that can double as an e-reader. Amazon had already adapted to this change in consumer focus when it killed off multiple e-readers last year and focused almost exclusively on its Kindle Fire HD line.

    Of course, it’s better late than never, and Nook is in a position where it needs all the help it can get. Barnes & Noble can now advertise that it has the Google Play store and all of its apps – something that Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD does not have. Of course, some consumers prefer the Kindle Fire HD for its curated app store experience so it will be interesting to see if a mostly unregulated app store will be much of a draw.

    Current Nook HD and HD+ owners will get Google Play in an OTA update today. The update will also bring all the other Google services that Android tablet owners have come to expect, like Google Chrome, Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps.

  • Hotmail Officially Dead, Rolled Into Outlook

    In the late 90s, Hotmail was the most popular online email service available. Though Yahoo email and Gmail later arrived to give the service significant competition, Hotmail remained widely used for over 16 years. Now, Hotmail has become another relic of the early internet.

    Microsoft this week announced that Hotmail is officially gone. The service has been rolled into Microsoft’s new Outlook.com service.

    Outlook.com Group Program Manager Dick Craddock announced the death of Hotmail on Thursday, over on the Outlook Blog. From the blog post:

    We want to give a huge “Thank you” to all of you who have supported Hotmail over the years, for some of you, that’s going back as far as 1996. It has been an amazing journey and we’ve been honored to provide you with a great mail experience for many years. When we launched the original preview of Outlook.com, we knew that we were committing to building the world’s best email with a brand and product experience that spans from consumers all the way to the largest organizations. We’re excited to have you join Outlook.com as we write the next chapter in modern email from Microsoft.

    With the added users from Hotmail, Outlook.com can now boast more than 400 million active accounts. Craddock stated that the Outlook team was able to migrate 150 petabytes of email in just 6 weeks while maintaining Hotmail users’ preferences and contacts.

    Hotmail users will still be able to use their @hotmail.com email address, but will access their inbox from the Outlook website. Microsoft is now using a single ‘Microsoft Account’ for all of its services, including SkyDrive, which is tightly integrated into Outlook.

  • Land an Interview with a Cold Call

    I’m a consultant — an expensive, trust-based business. I’ve never even bothered to cold call potential clients, because what sort of lunatic would spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on advice from a stranger? I’ve harshly warned other aspiring consultants off the practice: no one likes to be cold-called (I rarely even pick up my phone anymore unless I’m expecting a call) and it reeks of desperation.

    But in the course of researching my new book, Reinventing You, I gained a newfound understanding of its merits. Cold-calling doesn’t have to be about sleazy sales tactics or the quick hit; instead, it can simply be a way to connect with someone you might never otherwise have access to — even, it turns out, billionaires.

    After stints running a graphic design firm and working for NASA, Elizabeth Amini found herself unsure about her professional direction. She was interested in several different fields, but lacked contacts she could tap for informational interviews. She realized she needed to get creative about cold calls.

    Once you’ve identified who you’d like to meet, the first step is having some sort of imprimatur behind you so they’re more likely to pay attention. The CEO — the public face of the company — is bombarded with requests. That’s why Elizabeth started out one notch lower, with the office of the Chief Operating Officer, “because that secretary knows everybody,” she says. Her goal wasn’t actually to score an interview with the COO, which was probably unlikely. Instead, it was to get their imprimatur: “You can say, I know the COO is probably not the right person to talk to, but who is your best salesperson, or your rock star marketing person? And then you can say the COO’s office recommended them, and they’re not going to blow you off.”

    Next, it’s important to understand their time constraints. Asking a complete stranger for 30 or 60 minutes of their time is almost a guaranteed no. Instead, she’d ask, “Is it possible to schedule a 10 minute phone call or, if you’re free, I’d be happy to take you to lunch? Most people will opt for the phone call, which seems easy in comparison to lunch, and now you have an appointment on the books.”

    It’s important to show genuine interest: they might know nothing about you, but you need to have done extensive research on them. Says Elizabeth, “If they have a book, read it, because no one writes these people and says ‘I read your book.’” (It’s an understatement to say most CEOs’ tomes don’t get the same reception as Jack Welch’s.) Then, tell them, “I was impressed by XYZ, and I’d like to ask you some questions about how you became so successful.”

    Finally, you have to be willing to seize opportunity. Elizabeth was used to persevering through blow-offs or rejections; one executive literally cancelled on her six times before she eventually met with him. “Until I get a ‘No, never call me again,’ this is in play,” she says. But she was less prepared for the moment when she succeeded beyond her wildest imagination. Browsing the Forbes 500, she read about a billionaire real estate mogul who lived in her city. She called after 5:30 p.m. (post-secretary hours), got him on the phone — “and, oddly, he agreed to lunch,” she recalls.

    She was thrilled with the opportunity, but shortly after she got off the phone, she panicked. “I said ‘Pick your favorite place,’ but then I thought, Where do billionaires go for lunch? What if lunch is $1000?” She decided to proceed, despite the risks: I’ll put it on my credit card, she thought, and if it’s more than my rent, I’ll find a way to pay it off. The mogul took her to a local deli (his favorite spot) and lunch for two came to $17. He spent an incredible 90 minutes with her and “outlined exactly what it took to be him.”

    Elizabeth’s cold call-driven informational interviews gave her insights that continue to resonate in her new career, running an online game startup based on cutting-edge brain research. “You end up with all these random lessons that are important, even if the person’s field is not relevant to you in the end,” she says.

  • Good enough for government work: BlackBerry 10, Samsung Knox get DoD blessing

    BlackBerry 10 Samsung Knox DoD Approval
    BlackBerry 10 handsets and Samsung Android devices that carry the company’s Knox security software have been approved for use by the United States Department of Defense. A report from earlier this week suggested that certain devices from Samsung and Apple would soon be granted approval by DISA for use at the Pentagon, posing a serious problem for BlackBerry. While the company’s own next-generation BlackBerry 10 smartphones have been given the nod by DISA, the vendor now has a fierce competitor in Samsung as its Knox-enabled devices have indeed been approved for DoD use as well. Samsung noted in a press release that this marks the first time Android devices have been approved for use by the U.S. government and military. Apple’s iPhone and iPad have not yet been approved by DISA, though they are currently being reviewed. BlackBerry and Samsung’s respective press releases follow below.

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