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If you’ve ever been an AT&T Mobility customer you’re probably familiar with the concept of rollover: you can take a portion of unused voice minutes one month and add it to next month’s talk bucket. Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) FreedomPop this week jumped on the rollover bandwagon, but instead of applying it to voice, it’s doing it with data.

For a $3.49 a month, you can store up to 500 MB of unused data in a kind of rainy-day fund, which grow to a maximum size of 20 GB. The feature is available to all of its USB dongle and mobile hotspot customers, whether they pay for subscription tiers or indulge in FreedomPop’s free 500 MB plan (though if you enroll in the rollover plan, the service is obviously no longer free). Using FreedomPop’s social networking features, customers can also give portions of that banked bandwidth away.

FreedomPop notified its existing customers of the service on Wednesday, and in 24 hours 30 percent of its free customers had enrolled in the service, a FreedomPop spokesperson said.

Why the interest? Well, if you think about it, there’s not too much too you can do with 500 MB a month if you’re regularly using a mobile broadband service. But there are many people who only need mobile broadband on occasion. I count myself as one of them – I really only need a mobile hotspot service when traveling.

While I’m completely unwilling to pay $30 a month for a hotspot I use only every few months. I would be willing to pay a few bucks a month for a hotspot that I would allow me to consume hefty amounts of gigabytes at specific times without incurring massive overage fees. It’s a concept that FreedomPop competitor Karma is also latching onto, selling a gigabyte of data that never expires for $14.

The subscription model only works if you’re a regular user of a service. In the case of mobile broadband there is a huge potential for casual users who don’t want to be locked into pricey monthly plans. It’s good to see that companies like Karma and FreedomPop are starting to tailor their pricing to target just such users.

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Live from New York, it’s Samsung Unpacked! This evening at 7 pm EDT, Samsung officially rolls out its highly-anticipated flagship smartphone, and we’re there (via live stream). It’s not like being present exactly, but close enough.

All times are Eastern for this post, which is in reverse chronological order (e.g., newest first). I also recommend companion story “Why Apple fears Galaxy S IV“.

7:59 pm. As the event closes there are 393,000 people watching the live stream.

7:56 pm. “S View Cover” in an accessory that protects the phone while also presenting some info at a glance.

7:54 pm. “S Health” tracks your activity, such as calorie usage. There’s also monitoring of heart rate, blood pressure and sugar level.

7:52 pm. “Air Gesture” lets you control the phone without touching it.

7:51 pm. “Dual Video Call” is — say what? You can make a call using both cameras, so the recipient can see you and others.

7:49 pm. “Group Plays” turns one group of phones into one large 5.1 sound system and supports up to eight Galaxy devices. Feature supports multi-player games as well and works with as few as two phones (to make like 2.1 system).

7:47 pm. Galaxy S IV is the first Samsung smartphone with “Knox”, the security feature announced last month. Knox separates personal and professional spaces, among other security features.

7:46 pm. WTH? The phone works when you’re wearing gloves.

7:44 pm. Other personal assistant features include reading back messages, like when driving.

7:43 pm. “Smart Switch” uses the PC as go-between to change devices.

7:42 pm. “S Voice Drive” is a customized version of S Voice for the car, which presents fonts and other visuals larger.

7:39 pm. Dual-camera record! Wow! You can shoot video from both cameras at the same time and insert yourself into the whole video.

7:38 pm. “Story Album” creates photos and places them into story photo albums. There is support for tags and social sharing.

7:37 pm. “Adapt Display” adjusts contrast, lighting, etc. for all kinds of content.

7:35 pm. “S Translate” is like a Star Trek universal translator. It understands 9 languages and supports text to speech and speech to text. Languages include English, French, German, Japanese and Korean. There are 3,000-embedded sentences for when there is no network connection.

7:33 pm. “Eraser” allows you to remove unwanted objects from photos.

7:31 pm. “Drama Shot” can capture 100 frames in four seconds and from that pick the best shots.

7:26 pm. Wow, the battery is 2,600 mAh removal battery and removable.

7:25 pm. Device has 13-megapixel rear- and 2MP front-facing cameras, 2GB RAM, storage from 16GB to 64GB storage, which is expandable.

7:22 pm. Samsung’s Ryan Bidan says the phone, with 5-inch display, is 441 pixels per inch.

7:20 pm. Samsung will roll out from 327 carriers in 155 countries, starting at the end of April, with 3G and 4G versions.

7:19 pm. The music makes the debut really dramatic.

7:19 pm. Here’s the phone! Looks similar to Galaxy S III. But larger.

7:18 pm. Shin say the S4 is designed to help people “live the way they aspire to. For each of us life is a journey” and people want to bring their devices “on that journey”.

7:16 pm. “Imagine touchless interfaces”, Shin says. He talks about benefits exchanging data seamlessly. He promises a “perfect solution for work and play”, securely.

7:15 pm. JK Shin, a Samsung Electronics president, takes the stage.

7:13 pm. Will Chase is the MC. Jeremy Maxwell, the kid from the teaser commercials, has a box with the phone. He exits.

7:10 pm. Whoa, there’s a live band! It is Radio City after all.

7:06 pm. Now 318,000 viewers. How many would Apple get for iPhone?

7:03 pm. Start is late and now 283,000 viewers, via YouTube.

7:00 pm. As the show starts more than a quarter million people view the stream.

Early this evening, during a New York soiree, Samsung launched the Galaxy S IV smartphone. The venue is atypical. The South Korean electronics giant usually starts from home, offering new smartphones globally before reaching the United States. Now, in a dramatic change, a flagship Galaxy phone lands on Apple’s home turf first.

The companies are in a struggle for smartphone supremacy, with Samsung leading in most countries. With one glaring exception: The United States. Today’s venue clearly marks the South Korean manufacturer’s intentions to take the share lead from its American rival.

Apple responded to today’s launch S4 by sending out marketing chief Phil Schiller to talk down Samsung, its products and Android generally. But big headlines from blogs and news sites fall far short of offering a competitive product. The fruit-logo company rarely sends anyone on such a talking-down door. Surely someone is worried in Cupertino, Calif.

Even a year ago, the electronics giant wouldn’t have been so bold as to launch here, but Samsung’s brand acceptance is up, in part because of the success of Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II and some aggressive and creative marketing. Samsung also benefits from high-profile conversions, like prominent Mac journalist Andy Ihnatko switching to the S3 from iPhone 4S.

Samsung Soars

To say Samsung is on a roll is an understatement. During 2012, the company captured the No. 1 spot for all handsets and also smartphones. For the full year, as measured in actual phone sales to end users, Samsung share reached 22 percent — that’s from 385 million units, according to Gartner. Share was a tad higher for fourth quarter: 22.7 percent. Meanwhile Samsung smartphone sales soared 85 percent or nearly four times that of Apple.

Samsung’s sales success strongly weighs against Android, not just Apple. During fourth quarter, Android smartphone share rose to 69.7 percent from 51.3 percent a year earlier. By comparison, iOS fell to 20.9 percent from 23.6 percent. Samsung sold so many smartphones, it accounted for 42.5 percent of all Android sales in the category.

“The Android brand is being overshadowed by Samsung’s brand with the Galaxy name nearly a synonym for Android phones in consumers’ mind share”, Anshul Gupta, Gartner principal research analyst, says. Samsung’s success is mixed for Android as a platform. The South Korean company, and not Google, largely controls customers’ experience via TouchWiz UI and other features.

Dollars and Sense

Mobile makes huge contributions to Samsung’s bottom line. For Q4, the South Korean electronics giant reported revenue of about $52.45 billion and $6.55 billion profit. Mobile division revenue was $25.35 billion, and Samsung credits success largely to two devices — Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II. Interestingly, Samsung mobile ASPs are rising, and analyst data shows expansion across the globe — particularly markets once dominated by Nokia, China among them. Samsung credits sales to emerging markets as a bright point for the quarter.

They also happen to be where all the big sales growth is and where Samsung displaces, or replaces, leader Nokia. IDC predicts that emerging markets — Brazil, China and India, particularly — will be the biggest growth areas for smartphones, which accounted for 45 percent of all handset sales in Q, according to Gartner.

Apple struggles to get beyond the wealthiest consumers in this markets because:

• Subsidies make selling prices higher
• Contract commitments are required in countries where non traditionally are required

For example, “China is a massive growth prospect, but Apple is not making the market share impact there that it is in other markets”, Nicole Peng, Canalys China research director, says. By contrast, Samsung is a top vendor there elsewhere.

Unquestionably, Samsung blindsided Apple, much the way the American company did to competitors BlackBerry and Nokia. They didn’t see iPhone coming. Clearly Apple execs expected much less success from the so-called copycat.

For more 40 years, the Presidential Citizens Medal has recognized Americans who have "performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens." The Medal is among the highest awards a civilian can receive.

In February, at a ceremony in the East Room, President Obama honored the recipients of the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal, including twelve individuals and six educators from Sandy Hook Elementary. You can read more about them here and hear their stories:

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Hulu has officially announced that its SVP of content Andy Forssell will become its acting CEO when founding CEO Jason Kilar leaves the company at the end of the month. Kilar made the announcement himself Thursday afternoon on Hulu’s blog, writing:

“You know Andy well; he’s been a critical senior executive and has been here from the start of this great adventure. Andy exemplifies the Hulu culture and has been central to Hulu’s journey, helping to grow this company from 2 content partners and no revenue to over 450 content partners and approximately $700 million revenue in 2012.”

It’s been an open secret that Forssell was on the shortlist to become Hulu CEO for some time. I first heard a rumor about this in early January, and Adweek wrote that he was a likely candidate later that month. However, there were also a number of other names floating around, including at least one executive from Hulu co-owner Disney.

Speaking of co-owners: The fact that Forssell only got the job as acting CEO has a lot to do with Disney and News Corp. disagreeing over Hulu’s future. News Corp. wants to steer Hulu towards a paid subscription future, whereas Disney prefers the free, ad-based part of Hulu’s business. Finding a permanent CEO for a company whose future is in flux is apparently not that easy, which Kilar indirectly acknowledged in his blog post:

Disney and News Corporation are currently finalizing their forward-looking plans with Hulu, and the senior team has been working closely with them in that process. Once the plans are finalized, a permanent decision will be made regarding the CEO position.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that both Disney and News Corp. are considering buying the other partner out to take over majority control of Hulu. Comcast, the third studio major owner, is barred from making any decisions on Hulu’s future due to the NBC-Comcast merger conditions.

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On Thursday, Apple rolled out an update for OS X Mountain Lion. The latest iteration, which sports the 10.8.3 version number, delivers a significant number of improvements and bug fixes, among which is support for Windows 8 in Boot Camp as the main highlight.

OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 now comes with Safari 6.0.3, which touts improved scrolling while zoomed in and for Facebook, better performance on websites with plug-in content as well as bug fixes. Users can now redeem iTunes gift cards from the Mac App Store using the built-in camera and use Boot Camp on Mac devices with a 3TB hard-drive onboard.

Apple has also enhanced the compatibility with IMAP servers in the Notes app, the reliability for Microsoft Exchange accounts in the Mail app and for Xsan as well. Also, the Slideshow screensaver now displays subfolder photos.

OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 includes bug fixes related to URL files (no longer causes app crashes), Logic Pro (more responsive with plug-ins), audio stutter on 2011 iMacs, Contacts (prints cards in order and the addresses in the right location), Messages (display the correct order after resuming from sleep) and Active Directory accounts (keeps accounts locked in and fixes lag when logging on slow networks), among others.

Google might be upsetting a lot of people with some of its recent “spring cleaning,” but its latest batch of updates to BigQuery should make data analysts happy, at least.

With the latest updates — announced in a blog post by BigQuery Product Manager Ju-kay Kwek on Thursday — users can now join large tables, import and query timestamped data, and aggregate large collections of distinct values. It’s hardly the equivalent of Google launching Compute Engine last summer, but as (arguably) the inspiration for the SQL-on-Hadoop trend that’s sweeping the big data world right now, every improvement to BigQuery is notable.

BigQuery is a cloud service that lets users analyze terabyte-sized data sets using SQL-like queries. It’s based on Google’s Dremel querying system, which can analyze data where it’s located (i.e., in the Google File System or BigTable) and which Google uses internally to analyze a variety of different data sets. Google claims queries in BigQuery run at interactive speeds, which is something that MapReduce — the previous-generation tool for dealing with such large data sets — simply couldn’t handle within a reasonable time frame or level of complexity. Of course, if you want to schedule batch jobs, BigQuery lets you do that, too, for a lower price.

This constraint — and therefore the potential benefits of something like Dremel and its commercial incarnation, BigQuery — wasn’t lost on the Hadoop community, which itself had been largely reliant on MapReduce processing for years. In the past year, we’ve seen numerous startups and large vendors pushing their own Dremel-like (or MPP-like) technologies for data sitting in the Hadoop Distributed File System. If you happen to be in New York next week, you can hear some of the pioneers in this space talk about it at our Structure: Data conference.

Background aside, the ability to join large data sets in BigQuery is probably the most-important of the three new functions. Joins are an essential aspect of data analysis in most environments because pieces of data that are relevant to each other don’t always reside within the same table or even within the same cluster. And joining tables of the size BigQuery is designed for can take a long time without the right query engine in place.

Kwek offers an anecdote from Google that shows why joins, and the new aggregation function, are important:

[W]hen our App Engine team needed to reconcile app billing and usage information, Big JOIN allowed the team to merge 2TB of usage data with 10GB of configuration data in 60 seconds. Big Group Aggregations enabled them to immediately segment those results by customer. Using the integrated Tableau client the team was able to quickly visualize and detect some unexpected trends.

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An interview with Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and author of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. For more, see the April issue of HBR.

Download this podcast

A written transcript will be available by March 22.

NowThis News, the video news app launched last year on iOS by former Huffington Post executives Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau, launched on Android Thursday afternoon.

As we reported last fall, NowThis provides “a combination of original and third-party news videos” aimed at mobile users. There are about 1,500 videos available so far, and the company plans to add more.

NowThis is also launching an updated version of its iPad app soon. Among other things, the app will allow users to save up to 100 videos to their iPads for offline viewing.

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A grand jury has charged Matthew Keys, social media editor at international news service Reuters, with helping the hackers’ group Anonymous to break into the computer system of the publisher of the Los Angeles Times in order to alter its website.

The allegations are set out in a stunning indictment revealed by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday. Keys faces three federal charges: one for conspiracy and two related to sharing malicious code. The indictment (via Politico) also shows an instant messaging session in which Keys and a hacker named “sharpie” gloat over hacking the Times and commiserate that the publisher has locked Keys out of the system.

Key’s biography page at Reuters is still up for now and says he was hired in 2012 and is currently Deputy Social Media Editor, a relatively senior position that involves sharing newswire stories over platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Here’s a screenshot:

The indictment also states that Keys’ decision to supply passwords from the Tribune Company, his former employer, allowed Anonymous to alter a political story in the LA Times to say that “uber skid Chippy” take his place as head of the Senate and that Democrats should “suck it up.” The hacked version of the story stayed up for 30 minutes.

The indictment says the Anonymous communications took place in December of 2010 and describe Keys at that time as a “recently terminated employee” of radio station Fox 40.

If convicted of all the charges, Keys faces a maximum of 15 years in prison. In the event of a guilty plea, he could offer information in return about his co-conspirators in return for a shorter sentence. The indictment also states the federal government wants him to forfeit a MacBook Pro, a Toshiba hard drive and personal property.

Reuters’ Twitter account, which Keys presumably had a role in overseeing, continued to tweet regular business news on Wednesday. The Reuters Legal account has likewise so far made no mention of the hacking.

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If you use RSS feeds to keep up with the news, Google probably broke your heart yesterday by announcing that it’s shutting down Google Reader on July 1. Reader, aside from being a great web RSS reader, provided the syncing backend for many RSS readers in the iOS App Store, including Reeder, Mr. Reader and Newsify. I’ve been using Google Reader to sync my feeds for five years, so I’ve come to rely on it heavily for my news.

But recently I’ve also come to rely on several news aggregation apps (most of which are really just RSS readers with special features). Real RSS readers will still be around when Reader’s gone, especially given the market opportunity Reader’s demise presents for companies like Digg — which announced Thursday it would pick up where Google Reader leaves off — but it can’t hurt to have options for consuming news on your  mobile device. Sometimes I’ll find articles in these apps that I wouldn’t have found in my more focused list of RSS feeds.

Here are five good iOS apps — all of them are free — that you can personalize to help you keep up with the news:

Zite

Zite bills itself as a personalized digital magazine, and it’s actually been around for awhile (it was acquired by CNN in 2011). Zite’s interface is kind of boring, but it’s also straightforward. When you first start Zite, you can choose from a list of default topics for it to pull articles from. You can also add your own topics through the search interface. A newsfeed displays rectangular article previews for your top news. You can like or dislike the articles Zite shows you, and that data is used to find other articles you might like. You can switch between topics by swiping left or right, and view which topics an article has attached to it by swiping up.

Flud

Flud is unique in that you can follow articles that other users are sharing. Each user also gets a Flud iQ score, which measures your influence on the service based on your activity. Besides following other users, you can also search for new sources to draw from, which are added to a favorites menu. Flud’s interface is more interesting than Zite’s, with large article previews and pretty red buttons. However, the large previews mean only two article previews can fit on the screen at one time, so scrolling through them ends up feeling tedious at times.

Circa

Unlike the others on this list, Circa doesn’t show you full articles from a source. Instead, Circa has editors that condense articles into nuggets of information called “points.” Rather than reading the full text of the article, you swipe through a list of points. Because the articles have to be condensed by humans, Circa has a feature where you can follow an article, so you’ll get notified whenever a new point is added to it. You can’t add new sources or topics to Circa, and it only comes with four topics by default. If you’re fine with that caveat and like things straight to the point, Circa’s worth checking out.

Flipboard

Flipboard’s been pretty widely covered by now, but it can’t hurt to throw it in. Flipboard has a sort of homescreen where you can add and arrange topics. As implied in its name, you “flip” through articles rather than scrolling a list, which means you also have to flip through the ones you might not be interested in.The biggest strength of Flipboard is that you can add a multitude of social networks as sources, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+. You can even add your Google Reader account as a source — until it shuts down.

Pulse

The thing that stands out about Pulse’s app is its interface. Instead of a list of articles, you’re shown a vertically scrolling list of sources and under each is a horizontally scrolling list of articles from that source. The advantage of this is that it allows Pulse to fit nine article previews in one view. Flud only fits two, for comparison. The disadvantage is that it requires a little more scrolling to get through your articles, since they’re arranged horizontally. The headline text is rather small too, and there’s no way to change it. Old eyes beware.

What’s your favorite news aggregator? Are there any you’ve tried that aren’t on the list? Tell us in the comments. 

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Spending her formative years growing up living in the White House seems to have worked out for Chelsea Clinton. The daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State (and presumptive 2016 presidential candidate) Hillary Clinton has just purchased a posh apartment in Manhattan.

The New York Post is reporting that the 33-year-old and her husband have purchased an apartment right across from Madison Square Park. The 5,000 square foot living space cost a reported $10.5 million. The apartment reportedly has four bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms.

Both Bill and Hillary were spotted touring the apartment building last week. An unnamed source cited by the post stated that Chelsea and her husband found their new home “while out walking”.

Chelsea Clinton attended Stanford University during her father’s final term, before attending graduate school at Oxford in England. After graduating, she move to New York City, where she has worked for consulting and investment companies. In 2010 Clinton married Marc Mezvinsky, the son of a former congressman and a former congresswoman. Mezvinsky is an investment banker who has worked for Goldman Sachs and 3G Capital Management.

Today, Foursquare is releasing an update to their Android app that they say will help put recommendations front and center, right when you open the app.

“When you’re in a new city or neighborhood, Foursquare will show you popular places, sites, and must-see attractions. When you’re on your home turf, we’ll tell what spots are “new and notable” – places that have recently opened in your area,” says Foursquare.

Foursquare says that the new app will also highlight places on your to-do lists and uses that to make timely recommendations.

Back in February, Foursquare updated their Android app to display a map right when you open the app, complete with friends who are checked-in nearby and recommendations. That update also improved the Explore tab and made some tweaks to search.

You can grab the updated app today from Google Play.

After a two month drought, the Wii U is finally getting two of its most highly anticipated launch window titles – LEGO City Undercover and Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. The former will be launching next Monday, and Nintendo has a final launch trailer to coincide with the release:

Beyond a few tired movie references, LEGO City Undercover still looks charming as ever. The game has also been getting mostly positive reviews with a few middling scores thrown throughout.

LEGO City Undercover will launch exclusively for Wii U on March 18.

New Enterprise Associates, the venture capital firm, has launched NEA Studio, a new, New York-based 12-week program program for designers who found mobile and Web startups and who will work alongside NEA investors and design experts, including IDEO founder David Kelly. According to NEA, designers best suited for the program will be able to “take a side project to a full company with the three-month period.”

PRESS RELEASE:

New Enterprise Associates (NEA) today announced the launch of NEA Studio, a new program for designers founding mobile and web startups in New York. During the course of a 12-week program, designer-founders will work alongside NEA investors and a diverse team of experts from the design, startup and NEA portfolio communities including Liz Danzico, Designer, Chair & Co-Founder of the MFA in Interaction Design program at New York’s School of Visual Arts; IDEO founder David Kelley and New York Location Director Albert Lee; and Adi Tartarko, Founder and CEO of Houzz.

“Creating an amazing user experience is both art and science, and design plays a more important role than ever in developing a product–especially mobile and Internet applications,” said Dayna Grayson, Partner at NEA. “More and more designers are founding companies–it’s no longer the exclusive purview of technologists and business entrepreneurs. This is something we’d like to see more of in the market, and founding NEA Studio allows us to actively and directly support designer founders as they move to the next stage.”

Designers best suited for the program will take a side project to a full company within the three-month period. They will have access to shared workspace at the NEA Studio in Union Square, conduct weekly office hours and sessions with NEA investors and advisors, and receive a stipend to help fund their work during the program. NEA Studio will also hold weekly networking events including program participants, investors, advisors, and other members of the New York startup and design communities. Applications for the 12-week program are being accepted through March 31, 2013. The program kicks off April 30, 2013.

In addition to Danzico, Lee, Kelley and Tatarko, program advisors include Josh Berman, Co-Founder & CEO, BeachMint; Cameron Koczon, Partner, Fictive Kin; Akshay Kothari, Co-Founder & CEO, Pulse; Stew Langille, CEO, Visual.ly; Michael Lebowitz, Founder and CEO, Big Spaceship; Barbara Messing, CMO, TripAdvisor; Jill Nussbaum, Executive Director of Product and Interaction Design at the Barbarian Group; Hugo Van Vuuren, Partner, The Experiment Fund; and Rus Yusupov, Co-Founder, Vine.

“We hope this program will offer designer founders a jump start in building their product, and a network of key relationships to help fuel those efforts as they move forward,” said Tony Florence, General Partner at NEA. “As NEA has grown more deeply involved in the New York tech ecosystem, we’ve learned that it’s not only a thriving startup community, but one that is teeming with design talent. We’re excited to support and learn from the designer founders who come through the NEA Studio.”

The NEA Studio shared workspace will be at work–bench, an enterprise software cooperative located in New York’s Union Square. Committed to furthering technology with a purpose, work-bench provides members with a platform to scale their ventures, including a purposefully designed 32,000 square foot space, a growing catalog of member resources, and a powerful network of partners.

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With more than $13 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm’s long track record includes more than 175 portfolio company IPOs and more than 290 acquisitions. In the U.S., NEA has offices in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; Menlo Park, California; and New York City. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

SOURCE New Enterprise Associates

The post New Enterprise Associates Announces “NEA Studio” to Launch in New York’s Union Square appeared first on peHUB.

The owners of feline internet sensation Grumpy Cat have applied for trademarks over a wide-range of merchandise such as cell phone covers, beer mugs and video games. The cat’s lawyer, however, says the owners will “try to be cool and stay righteous” about kitty-related fan art, and will only go after “dirtbags” who defiantly attempt to cash in.

The plan comes as the fame of Grumpy Cat, a Snowshoe Siamese with a perpetually dour expression, continues to grow. Last week, the cat stole the show at the tech and music festival, SXSW, where people lined up for hours to take pictures with her. Grumpy Cat was also hired by BuzzFeed but had a bad first day.

The trademark applications, which also cover hoodies and comedy videos, were filed in January on behalf of Ohio-based Grumpy Cat Incorporated. Los Angeles lawyer, Kia Kamran, confirmed by email that the company is controlled by Tabatha and Bryan Bundesen, the siblings who own the cat and helped build its fame.

Kamran, who also represents Mike Tyson, says he hasn’t filed any Grumpy Cat lawsuits yet but probably will soon in response to the “current wave of infringers that are popping up.” He adds that, while he’s sensitive to the cultural dimensions of internet memes, he’s had to take action on behalf of other clients, Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat.

Standing up for the feline will be a challenge, however, since Grumpy Cat is a cat not a person. Unlike human celebrities, animals can’t invoke “personality rights” which let them control their image. The Bundesens, if their application is successful, will nonetheless be able to control the commercial use of the phrase “grumpy cat” and photographs they own of the cat.

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Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) has appointed Robert O’Brien to lead its global real estate group. O’Brien, already a vice chairman with Deloitte in the U.S., will also continue as the U.S. real estate leader.

PRESS RELEASE:

NEW YORK, March 14, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) announced today that Robert T. O’Brien has been appointed to lead its global real estate group. O’Brien, a vice chairman with Deloitte in the United States, will also continue as the U.S. real estate leader.

In his DTTL role, O’Brien will focus on sharing emerging trends and best practices with the network of member firms around the globe to help ensure a consistently high level of client-service excellence worldwide. Backed by a 10-member Global Real Estate Executive Committee, O’Brien will work with the member firms to develop regional teams in emerging markets, enhance service programs for Deloitte’s largest global clients, and leverage its deep industry expertise across consulting, tax, audit, enterprise risk and financial advisory services. O’Brien will work closely with Chris Harvey, Global Lead, Financial Services Industry, DTTL.

“To capture growth in the next few years, many major real estate players are diversifying their portfolios across geographic markets and asset classes. As the economic recovery matures, we are seeing an increase in cross-border capital flows in the real estate industry,” said O’Brien. “Investment activity in emerging markets is strong. The dramatic flight to quality in the developed markets is now leading to favorable opportunities in secondary and tertiary locations,” he said. “Further, around the world we see commercial real estate leaders getting more active in capturing the benefits of technological innovation, like cloud computing and advanced analytics, to drive business decisions and maintain a competitive edge.”

O’Brien’s background, spanning 29 years, includes significant global client relationships, initial public offerings, acquisitions, dispositions, workouts and bankruptcies. He has advised some of the largest public real estate investment trusts, private equity real estate funds and hospitality clients.

“Real estate continues to evolve as a global industry,” said Chris Harvey. “With a strong presence in every major financial center and emerging market around the world, Deloitte’s real estate practices offer clients an entry to a global network with the ‘on- the-ground-expertise’ so vital to real estate.”

O’Brien has been the U.S. member firm’s real estate practice leader for three years. Prior to that he served as the U.S. member firm’s audit and enterprise risk management leader for its real estate practice, as well as Deloitte’s global real estate funds initiative leader.

O’Brien joined the Deloitte U.S. firm in 1983 upon graduation from John Carroll University with bachelors of science in accounting. In 1989, he earned a MBA in finance with highest honors from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, with a concentration in real estate and international business. He is a CPA and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He serves as a Board Associate of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, and is a Trustee and Foundation Governor for the Urban Land Institute.

About Deloitte

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee, and its network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited and its member firms.

Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and high-quality service to clients, delivering the insights they need to address their most complex business challenges. Deloitte has in the region of 200,000 professionals, all committed to becoming the standard of excellence.

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Apparently there is some new Samsung phone being announced later today, but for the past 24 hours Google owned the news cycle for all of the wrong reasons. Yesterday the company tried to quietly announce its latest round of spring cleaning, but an app included in that list, Reader, got a bit more attention than the company likely wanted.

Now companies are stepping all over one another in a rush to fill a void that is apparently much larger than Google would have you believe. Feedly, perhaps the biggest competitor, already posted detailed instructions on how to get rid of Reader and move to its service. The company claims this move was “something we have been expecting for some time: We have been working on a project called Normandy which is a feedly clone of the Google Reader API – running on Google App Engine. When Google Reader shuts down, feedly will seamlessly transition to the Normandy back end. So if you are a Google Reader user and using feedly, you are covered: the transition will be seamless”.

Now, today, Digg follows suit with its own announcement about working on an alternative for disenfranchised Google Reader customers. In an earlier announcement Andrew from Digg states: “We’ve heard people say that RSS is a thing of the past, and perhaps in its current incarnation it is, but as daily (hourly) users of Google Reader, we’re convinced that it’s a product worth saving. So we’re going to give it our best shot. We’ve been planning to build a reader in the second half of 2013, one that, like Digg, makes the Internet a more approachable and digestible place. After Google’s announcement, we’re moving the project to the top of our priority list. We’re going to build a reader, starting today”.

The company is asking for help and suggestions with the project and hopes to make it the best alternative for angry Googlers, which many of us here at BetaNews seem to qualify as today.

If the petitions that have sprung up around the web today are not enough to get the search giant’s attention then at least user’s will have a fair amount of alternatives to choose from.

Photo Credit: metalstock/Shutterstock

Long after a war is over, land mines continue to maim and kill. In Minescape: Waging War Against Land Mines, artist and photojournalist Brett Van Ort shares a collection of photographs documenting the tragic and unforeseen consequences of leftover land mines from the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through unsettling photographs of deceptively innocent landscapes, descriptions of the various types of land mines and chilling images of prosthetic limbs and metal joints, Minescape reminds us of the lingering threats of war that often remain in times of peace.

Minescape is the first TED Book to be released in conjunction with a print edition, and will complement an art book to be published by Daylight Books in April 2013. This will also mark one of the first projects from the newly launched Daylight Digital. But the TED Books version of Minescape will be a little different, pairing Van Ort’s moving photographs and personal accounts with Joel Whitney’s globe-trotting investigative essays. It also includes multimedia features that detail the continued impacts of land mines as well as innovative techniques for landmine detection, allowing photography lovers and academics-alike to go beyond the images.

Minescape is available for Kindle and Nook, as well as through the iBookstore. Or download the TED Books app for your iPad or iPhone. A subscription costs $4.99 a month, and is an all-you-can-read buffet.

After their purchase of BioClinica, a clinical train management services firm, and the medical imaging and cardiac safety services company CoreLab Partners, middle market firms JLL Partners and Ampersand Capital Partners have combined the two companies under the name BioClinica.

PRESS RELEASE:

BioClinica(R), Inc., BIOC 0.00% , a global provider of clinical trial management services, announced today that JLL Partners and Ampersand Capital Partners, two leading middle market private equity firms, have completed their acquisition of BioClinica and CoreLab Partners and have combined the two companies under the name BioClinica.

This merger brings together two of the most experienced and trusted authorities in medical imaging management for clinical trials and creates a new standard in imaging core lab services, cardiovascular safety monitoring, and eClinical trial management solutions.

“The unification of BioClinica and CoreLab Partners will enhance the existing service quality and technological innovation supported by scientific and medical expertise that have long been hallmarks of these two companies,” said Mark Weinstein, who will lead the newly combined company as President and CEO. “This merger produces a stronger BioClinica that is better able to support pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device development.”

Dan Agroskin, Managing Director of JLL Partners said, “JLL has spent a significant amount of time gaining an understanding of the pharmaceutical outsourcing sector and, as a result, we are pleased to have made these two acquisitions. This combination brings together two industry leading companies that we are confident will continue to deliver a strong service offering to their customers. We are excited by the growth potential of this newly formed platform, and we look forward to working with the talented management of BioClinica and CoreLab Partners as they continue to enhance their best-in-class capabilities.”

The combination of BioClinica and CoreLab Partners establishes a clear industry leader for imaging core lab services and further complements BioClinica’s other service offerings. BioClinica is better positioned to offer customers comprehensive support for clinical trials with extensive capabilities, including:

Scientific and Medical Expertise

– Unmatched scientific and medical expertise in therapeutic areas where imaging is critical such as oncology, neurology, musculoskeletal, and cardiology

– A comprehensive suite of cardiovascular safety monitoring services with unrivaled scientific and technical leadership

Industry-Leading Technologies

– Longstanding experience working across all imaging modalities

– Combined strength in image acquisition protocols, electronic transfer, management, and central review of medical images

– Leading eClinical solutions for clinical trial management, electronic data capture, randomization, and supply chain forecasting and optimization

Recognized Clinical Trial Experience

– A combined total of 50 FDA approved drugs, including 33 in oncology

– Demonstrated flexibility to engage in multiple partnership models and the independence to collaborate with a sponsor’s choice of full-service Contract Research Organizations (CROs)

– Global operational support in North America, China, Japan, Germany, The Netherlands, and France

Follow BioClinica on the Trial Blazers blog at http://www.bioclinica.com/blog, and on twitter at http://twitter.com/bioclinica.

About the BioClinica, Inc. Merger Transaction

On March 13, 2013, JLL Partners completed its acquisition of BioClinica through the short-form merger of an entity affiliated with JLLPartners and BioClinica. BioClinica is the surviving entity in the merger and is now wholly-owned by affiliates of JLL Partners, Ampersand and certain other investors. As of the close of business on March 13, 2013, BioClinica will no longer trade on the Nasdaq Global Market.

In connection with the transaction, KeyBank National Association, CIT Finance LLC and U.S. Bank National Association acted as the lead arrangers and joint bookrunners for the financing, which consisted of $100 million of senior secured facilities, including a $75 million term loan facility and $25 million revolving facility, undrawn at close.

Excel Partners acted as financial advisor to BioClinica, and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP acted as legal counsel to BioClinica. Robert W. Baird acted as financial advisor to CoreLab Partners and Edwards, Wildman Palmer LLP acted as legal counsel to CoreLab Partners and Ampersand Capital Partners. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Simpson Thacher Bartlett LLP acted as legal counsel to JLL Partners.

About BioClinica

BioClinica is a leading global provider of integrated, technology-enhanced clinical trial management services. A 2013 merger with CoreLab Partners created a new standard for imaging core lab services including electronic transfer, management, and independent review; cardiovascular safety monitoring including automated ECG, Thorough QT studies, Holter monitoring, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and pulse wave analysis; and eClinical solutions for electronic data capture, randomization, clinical trial management, and clinical supply chain forecasting and optimization. BioClinica offers unmatched scientific expertise with a team of respected medical researchers and board certified, sub-specialty trained radiologists, cardiologists, nuclear medicine physicians and oncologists. With more than 28 years of experience and over 3,300 successful trials to date, BioClinica has supported the development of many new medicines through all phases of the clinical trial process. BioClinica operates state-of-the-art, regulatory-body-compliant imaging core labs on two continents, and supports worldwide comprehensive cardiovascular safety, and eClinical and data management services from offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.bioclinica.com.

About JLL Partners

JLL Partners is a leading New York-based private equity investment firm with approximately $4 billion of capital under management. JLL Partners’ investment philosophy is to partner with outstanding management teams and invest in companies that they can continue to grow into market leaders. JLL Partners has invested in a variety of industries, with special focus on the healthcare and pharmaceutical services industries. For more information, please visit www.jllpartners.com.

About Ampersand

Ampersand Capital Partners, based in Boston, is a leading private equity firm that focuses on middle market growth equity investments in the Healthcare sector. Ampersand Capital Partners leverages its unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. For more information, please visit www.ampersandcapital.com.

Certain matters discussed in this press release are “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In particular, the Company’s statements regarding trends in the marketplace and potential future results are examples of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the consummation and the successful integration of current and proposed acquisitions, the timing of projects due to the variability in size, scope and duration of projects, estimates and guidance made by management with respect to the Company’s financial results, backlog, critical accounting policies, regulatory delays, clinical study results which lead to reductions or cancellations of projects, and other factors, including general economic conditions and regulatory developments, not within the Company’s control. The factors discussed herein and expressed from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission could cause actual results and developments to be materially different from those expressed in or implied by such statements. The forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this press release and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstance. You should review the Company’s filings, especially risk factors contained in the Form 10-K and the recent Form 10-Q.

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