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Steve Case Launches $450 Million East Coast Venture Fund

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AOL co-founder and former CEO Steve Case announced on Thursday that he and two former AOL colleagues, Ted Leonsis and Donn Davis, have raised a $450 million venture capital fund that will focus on startups outside of Silicon Valley.

“While our visibility and reach is national, we will generally focus on investments in the Eastern United States,” they wrote in a blog post. “We believe there are great entrepreneurs building great companies all over the country, so we will focus our attention outside of Silicon Valley. ”

The Revolution Growth fund will operate under Case’s private holding company, Revolution, which is an investor in LivingSocial and Zipcar, among others. The fund will make just 10 or 12 investments over the next five years, and it expects each investment to be in the $25 million to $50 million range.

Case described what he looks for when making investments in an interview with Mashable last year:

“Our focus is, how do you build on what’s already out there on the Internet and not just focus on so-called ‘Internet businesses?’ [It's about] using the Internet as a way to have a broader impact on the things that affect people’s everyday life,” he said.

At that point, Revolution made investments mostly with Case’s money. Adding 24 institutional limited partners is a big change.

“We concluded earlier this year that we wanted to take the next step and really institutionalize the firm, and make it like a Kleiner Perkins,” Case told The New York Times. “We want to be a leading investment firm, on the East Coast.”

Photo courtesy of Revolution

More About: Donn Davis, Revolution, steve case, Ted Leonsis

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/12/01/steve-case-fund/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_med...

Ask Slashdot: Best Flash-Friendly Router To Replace Aging WRT54GS?

New submitter Juggler00 writes "I have been running DD-WRT (v24-sp2) on my Linksys WRT54GS for a couple of years now. I'm now finding that the box cannot keep up with the requests/requirements I have for it--it simply does not have the MIPS/horsepower. I am turning to the collective wisdom of the Slashdot community for 2 things: what alternative firmware should I be using (DD-WRT, Tomato, OpenWRT, or something else?) and based on the answer to this question, what is the suggested router to purchase to flash? My software requirements include DynDNS client, DHCP server providing option 66, static IP assignment based on MAC, port forwarding, and basic QoS (bittorrent lowest priority). For hardware, I'm looking for GigE ports and 802.11N (5.8GHz not a requirement)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

from Slashdot http://ask.slashdot.org/story/11/12/01/182224/ask-slashdot-best-flash-friendl...

Twitter’s Self-Serve Ad Platform Finally Goes Live


Twitter‘s long-awaited self-serve ad platform was quietly introduced in November with a “handful” of advertisers, according to the company.

The program, which Twitter announced in April 2010, is available to anyone with a credit card who wants to take advantage of Promoted Products. However, the option isn’t yet open to the public.

“This is an important step in continuing to grow Twitter’s business,” said Twitter rep Matt Graves via email. “Our Promoted Products can help small and medium-sized businesses build their audience on Twitter and better engage with the people they want to reach. As with all of our advertising efforts, we’re starting small, testing carefully and making improvements on as we learn what works. We will slowly roll this capability out to more advertisers in the coming weeks and months.”

Twitter has indeed been taking its time with the initiative. A year ago, the company rolled out a turn-key advertising solution that lets marketers express their interest in advertising. However, such potential advertisers were not able to actually buy ads until last month. The timing of the self-serve ad platform was not a surprise. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has stated that the company planned to introduce such a program before year’s end.

SEE ALSO: The History of Advertising on Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

Twitter, a private company, doesn’t disclose details of its financial performance. However, eMarketer estimates that Twitter made $45 million from advertising in 2010 and will earn $139.5 million this year, a 210% jump.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Coletivo Mambembe

More About: Advertising, trending, Twitter

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/12/01/twitter-self-serve-ads/?utm_source=feedburner&...

Speculation on Apple's Television Set: Range of Sizes, Device Integration, Premium Pricing

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has long been one of the strongest advocates for an Apple-branded television set, and with increasing claims of just such a product pointing to a launch as soon as the second half of next year, it seems that his persistent confidence in the idea may be panning out.


Keeping in mind that Munster does not have specific knowledge of Apple's ultimate plans for its television sets, he does have ideas about what he thinks Apple will do with the product. Business Insider reports that he shared some of those ideas at a conference this morning, going as far as to recommend that anyone thinking of buying a TV wait until Apple shows its hand. Among Munster's predictions:

- Full-fledged television set. Given that Apple seeks to streamline the user experience and its recognition that users don't really want yet another set-top box, Apple will almost certainly be going for an all-in-one solution. But given that Apple does not currently offer a full suite of television content offerings, most users will likely not be able to cut ties to their cable or satellite providers. Apple's TV will instead serve as an advanced interface that still draws upon the standard signal coming in from a cable box.

- Range of sizes and twice current pricing. Munster believes that Apple will introduce its television in a range of sizes, recognizing that customers have different needs. He also believes that Apple will price its television at approximately twice the prevailing market price of similarly-sized televisions. The price premium would cover the additional hardware and software necessary for integration with the Apple ecosystem while also preserving Apple's high profit margins in a competitive market.

- Simplicity and Apple's ecosystem. Aside from the rumored Siri voice-powered interface, Munster predicts that the Apple television will integrate with iOS devices and Apple's content ecosystem for video, games, and apps, serving as another hub for digital entertainment tied into Apple. The interface will likely include a traditional remote control, but also iPad and iPhone apps for controlling the set's features, as well as Siri voice control that seeks to remove much of the complexity of interacting with television sets. Users will simply be able to input or say "ESPN" to be taken to the sports channel rather than having to look up or remember the channel number.

In line with some of the other predictions and rumors, Munster sees the Apple television set making an introduction late next year, in time for the 2012 holiday shopping season.


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from MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page http://www.macrumors.com/2011/11/30/speculation-on-apples-television-set-rang...

Resources for mobile developers

To help build upon an already thriving mobile ecosystem, today we’re excited to launch new resources for mobile development, beginning with the Twitter framework for iOS. Since the launch of iOS 5, we have seen an incredible number of applications incorporate the Twitter framework, including the launch partners we highlight at http://ios.twitter.com. The iOS integration enables simple mobile sharing, and reflects our commitment to mobile Twitter integrations.

read more

from Twitter Developers blogs https://dev.twitter.com/blog/resources-mobile-developers

Your New Facebook Status: 63,206 Characters or Less


Twitter, as everyone and their tweeting dog knows, limits your status updates to 140 characters. But Facebook? Facebook laughs in the face of such limitations. On Facebook, 140 characters is barely clearing your throat.

In a blog post Wednesday, Facebook’s Journalist Program Manager (and Mashable alum) Vadim Lavrusik announced that the limit of Facebook status updates has now been upped to “more than 60,000 characters.” When Mashable asked, Lavrusik explained what that meant, exactly: You can now post a status update measuring 63,206 characters.

But not one character more than that. Sorry, would-be Facebook novelists; you’ll have to split your prose into multiple updates. (As Lavrusik points out, an average novel will now require nine status updates.) This also goes for group messages and posts on your friends’ walls — so you can now annoy the heck out of them with unreasonably long catch-up messages.

Facebook update character limits have been expanding almost as rapidly as the social network itself. Until March 2009, the limit was barely bigger than Twitter’s, at 160 characters. Then 420 characters marked the end of your post’s potential. This summer, it jumped from 500 to 5,000, and now the limit has hit the stratosphere.

So much for social media keeping things short and sweet. At least one Facebook user has already attempted a status update with 60,000 characters of nonsense words, but he’ll need to add 3,206 more to hit the limit.

Below is Facebook’s visualization of the status update limits. Would you ever post a message this long? Let us know in the comments. But please, if you can, keep it short.

More About: Facebook, facebook status updates, Twitter

from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/11/30/facebook-status-63206-characters/?utm_source=f...

Verizon’s FiOS TV Coming to an Xbox Near You

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has been having one heck of a week. Rumors about the next-generation console and Kinect peripheral are building serious buzz, and the console experienced its best sales week ever over Thanksgiving with more than 960,000 sold. Now, Verizon is announcing Microsoft’s little gaming console that could is getting FiOS TV as early as Dec. 1.

Verizon put the announcement on its forum saying:

“FiOS customers who subscribe to both FiOS TV and FiOS Internet and are Xbox LIVE Gold members can use their Xbox consoles to watch select live FiOS TV channels. No extra hardware. Plus, for the first time, Kinect for Xbox 360 will be integrated into the TV experience, allowing customers to use voice and gesture commands to control their TV viewing.”

Verizon will be putting out a special FiOS TV app that will be available sometime in Dec. It will launch with 26 channels with more to be added. Verizon is loading its deck to ensure a good launch. It unveiled a bunch of deals, bundles and promotions such as a triple-play service for $89.99 per month, limited Xbox LIVE Gold membership and a sponsor spot for Machinima’s Gamers’ Choice Award.

The announcement and promotions seem to show Verizon is taking a much more active interest in video games for both distribution and new customers. Consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3 are branching out of their own gaming shells by incorporating video streaming from Netflix, music libraries and of course its built in DVD player. Sony is pushing the PS3 into 3D gaming and programing while Microsoft is incorporating its gesture-based Kinect peripheral into how users browse through all sorts of media content.

With video games now starting to rake in blockbuster-level money, television integration is the next logical addition to video game consoles. Does FiOS on your Xbox 360 sound like a good idea or a recipe for disaster? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image courtesy of Flickr, josh-ferris

More About: game, Gaming, microsoft, verizon, verizon fios, video game, xbox

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from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2011/11/29/verizon-fios-xbox/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_m...

Time Warner Cable's tablet app available for Android, live TV streaming still iPad only

As promised, a Honeycomb compatible version of Time Warner Cable's tablet app has arrived before the return of the NBA. Dubbed TWC TV in its Android iteration, v1.0 includes an integrated guide, the ability to act as a remote control, search TV listings, and schedule DVR recordings. So far it's only promised to operate on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Xoom tablets, but the notes indicate it should scale to whatever Honeycomb slate you happen to have handy at the moment. The marquee live TV streaming feature is still on hold waiting for the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, but if what you need is a couch companion instead of a kitchen / bathroom TV screen it's ready to go. Check out the Time Warner blog for more notes or just hit the Android Market link below to download it yourself.

Continue reading Time Warner Cable's tablet app available for Android, live TV streaming still iPad only

Time Warner Cable's tablet app available for Android, live TV streaming still iPad only originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/29/time-warner-cables-tablet-app-available-fo...