VentureBeat |
- Amazon rises in customer satisfaction for 2011, Netflix nose dives
- Android had a merry Christmas weekend with 3.7M activations
- Mu Sigma raises $108M to grow its big data services
- Windows Phone leaked roadmap reveals Tango, Apollo update plans
- Ocean Marketing: How to self-destruct your company with just a few measly emails
- Mainland China gets iPhone 4S in time for Chinese New Year
- Google+ reaches 62M users, still not giving Facebook a run for its money
- 50,000 apps later, Windows Phone is still in trouble
- Analysis: Anonymous stole over 9K active credit card numbers in Stratfor hack
- Siri now available on jailbroken iOS 5 devices, including iPhone 4
- YouTube Slam pits viral videos against each other
- Foxconn invests $1.1B for world’s largest smartphone production plant
- Jailbreak! iOS 5.0.1 gets untethered exploits for non-A5 chip devices
- 3DS sells over 4M units in Japan, first premium downloadable content title announced
- LCD display makers to pay $553M in price-fixing conspiracy case
- Christmas marks record high for Android and iOS activiations, app downloads
- AOL media talent loss continues: Joystiq editor departing for Vox
- NameCheap offers you a discount to leave SOPA-supporting domain hosting services
- 2012 predictions: It’s doom & gloom for Amazon, RIM and Zynga
- How to get a programming job at a startup (infographic)
- Five new year’s resolutions for Enterprise IT
| Amazon rises in customer satisfaction for 2011, Netflix nose dives Posted: 28 Dec 2011 08:24 AM PST
ForeSee’s report scores the top 40 online retailers in 14 different areas: content, website functionality, merchandise and prices. The report contains top retailers’ scores for the last six years. In previous years, Amazon faced competition from movie rental and streaming video service Netflix on the firm’s satisfaction index. This year Amazon scored an 88 (of 100). But with excelling customer support, fast shipping through its Amazon Prime membership and no taxes on items sold by Amazon itself, those results are hardly surprising. The lower score by Netflix is even less surprising. In July, the video rental company decided to raise subscription rates by 60 percent on its DVD-by-mail service, which caused a huge uproar among its 25 million monthly subscribers. Then in September, CEO Reed Hastings announced that the company was spinning off its DVD-by-mail business into a separate company called Qwikster — a move that caused an even bigger customer backlash. After plenty of negative criticism and a significant dip to its stock price, Netflix decided to cancel its plans for Qwikster. With that said, it’s no wonder Netflix’s customer satisfaction score plummeted seven points (or eight percent) from last year to 79. As I’ve previously pointed out, Amazon is slowly making strides into the streaming media subscription market with its Prime Instant Video. With a solid customer satisfaction ranking, Amazon is one step closer to becoming a serious streaming competitor against Netflix. Joining Netflix’s decreased score are clothing retailer Gap (down six percent to 73) and Overstock.com (down five percent to 72). Click the image to the right for a better visual of the big winners and losers of ForeSee’s 2011 results. Filed under: media, VentureBeat        
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| Android had a merry Christmas weekend with 3.7M activations Posted: 28 Dec 2011 07:17 AM PST
The holiday bump, while not surprising, is yet another reminder of Android’s unstoppable growth. Last week, Rubin revealed that Android had reached a new milestone of 700,000 daily activations. At this rate, it seems certain that Android will hit the magical 1 million daily activation milestone at some point this year. We reported yesterday that both Android and iOS saw record-high activations during Christmas, reaching a massive 6.8 million activations between the two platforms. While many of those activations derived from smartphones, the Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire likely accounted for much of the tablet activations. Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Mu Sigma raises $108M to grow its big data services Posted: 28 Dec 2011 06:51 AM PST
Mu Sigma helps big companies across several industries — including many Fortune 500 companies — manage their overwhelming amount of online data by translating it into analytics and digestible observations. The new funding is one of the largest raised by a big data startup. The company claims its already profitable — with revenue between 2008 and 2010 growing 886 percent. The new capital will be used to buy shares back from existing shareholders, acquire new customers and develop more services for current customers. Founded in 2008, the Chicago-based startup previously received $25 million in funding in April 2011 from Sequoia Capital. The new round of funding was led by growth equity firm General Atlantic with additional participation from Sequoia. Mu Sigma has raised a total of $133 million to date. Filed under: cloud, deals, enterprise, VentureBeat        
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| Windows Phone leaked roadmap reveals Tango, Apollo update plans Posted: 28 Dec 2011 06:42 AM PST
Tango, which will focus on delivering “products with the best price,” will hit sometime in the second quarter, while Apollo, a major update meant for superphones, will land in the fourth quarter, according to a leaked roadmap uncovered by WMPoweruser. The roadmap is up to date as of October, so it’s possible that Microsoft’s plans may have shifted since then. Still, it gives us a decent sense of what the company is aiming to accomplish in 2012. The company has just finished rolling out its Mango update to all existing Windows Phones. The Tango update will serve to get Windows Phone in the low-cost phone arena, something that Microsoft desperately needs to do to better compete with Android and the iPhone. Right now, consumers looking for a bargain smartphone are usually faced with an Android device, or previous-generation iPhone — Windows Phone could be a particularly tempting option for users who don’t want the complications of Android, or to be tied into Apple’s ecosystem. Nokia is leading the way with low-cost Windows Phone devices with the launch of its Lumia 710, which is headed to the U.S. via T-Mobile for just $50 with contract. Hardcore users will look forward to the Apollo update, which will hopefully bring dual-core chipsets, LTE, and high-resolution screens to the platform. Still, it sounds like once again Microsoft will be a year late with its cutting edge hardware, since both the iPhone 4S and Android smartphones feature those specs today. Microsoft also expects that Apollo will help it to increase its volume of devices sold — though that will only happen if it offers compelling devices and steps up its marketing efforts.
Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Ocean Marketing: How to self-destruct your company with just a few measly emails Posted: 27 Dec 2011 09:24 PM PST Strap yourself in, you’re about to witness the most outlandlish PR blunder in video gaming history. And trust me, there have been many… Starting earlier this morning with a post on Penny Arcade, co-founder Mike “Gabe” Krahulik brought to light a series of emails between Dave, a customer politely inquiring about the status of his Avenger PlayStation 3 controller order, and Paul Christoforo of Ocean Marketing, the PR lead for the product. I’m going to repost the emails in their entirety, then we’ll continue much, much further down the rabbit hole afterward. There’s even a parody video thrown in on the second page…
Note that at this point “Dave” begins to include Penny Arcade, Kotaku, and other news outlets in his correspondence with Christoforo.
The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) comment motivates Krahulik to step in.
If you need a cigarette or bathroom break, now is the time, as this tale of job-destroying fail only gets better (or worse?) from here. Filed under: games        
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| Mainland China gets iPhone 4S in time for Chinese New Year Posted: 27 Dec 2011 06:30 PM PST
According to official news outlet of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, People’s Daily, the coveted gadget has been approved for distribution and should be available for sale soon. “After obtaining the network entry permit from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China (MIIT), the iPhone 4S received China Compulsory Certification (3C) for electronic products on December 22, meaning that it has met all the requirements for coming into markets of China,” reads the report in People’s Daily. The publication noted that the approved device’s model number, A1431, was identical to the number used for the iPhone 4S’s network entry permit from the MIIT. China recently surpassed the U.S. as the largest smartphone market in the world. During the third quarter of 2011, smartphone shipments reached 23.9 million units in China, while the U.S. saw 23.3 million units shipped. However, while China’s demand for smartphones has surged in recent years and months, many consumers around the world have been holding out for the highly anticipated iPhone 4S. Greater China, defined by the iPhone manufacturer as including Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, is Apple’s fastest-growing market. Sales in the region have increased around 270 percent over the past year. In fact, during the same period of time in which China passed by the U.S. in smartphone consumption, another report from Gartner showed that global smartphone growth had stalled in anticipation of the iPhone 4S launch in a variety of markets. "Strong smartphone growth in China and Russia helped increase overall volumes in the quarter, but demand for smartphones stalled in advanced markets such as Western Europe and the U.S. as many users waited for new flagship devices featuring new versions of the key operating systems," said Gartner principal research analyst Roberta Cozza in the report. Filed under: mobile        
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| Google+ reaches 62M users, still not giving Facebook a run for its money Posted: 27 Dec 2011 04:24 PM PST
For a social network that was invite-only until July 2011, those numbers are not bad. However, Google+ has a long way to go if it wants to catch up to Facebook’s 800 million users. Google+ has been adding new users by the tens of millions just about every month since it became available to the general public back in July, according to Allen’s report. So far in December, Google+ has registered 12 million new members. Allen says that based on the current rate of growth, Google+ can expect to see 100 million new users by the end of February, and 293 million members by the end of next year. But Allen is expecting accelerated growth for the social network which could put Google+ at 400 million users by the end of 2012. What’s the reasoning behind Allen’s predictions? He points to the approximately 700,000 Android devices that are activated each day, which he contends will draw more users to Google+. A Google spokesperson told VentureBeat that the company does not “have any additional metrics to provide based on Paul Allen’s estimates,” but that more than 40 million people have signed up for the social network. That number comes from Google’s latest earnings call which took place on October 13. Even if Allen’s predictions are correct and Google+ hits 400 million users by this time next year, it still won’t compete with Facebook’s 800 million (and counting) very active members. While this growth is good news for those who want their friends and families fill up their Google+ streams, its unlikely that Google’s social network will overshadow Facebook anytime soon. In an attempt to garner more attention, Google+ rolled out a new ad campaign over the holiday season. The ads featured NBA annoucers and the Muppets to highlight Hangouts and other cool features of the social network. Perhaps the ads were enough to remind people that yes, Google+ does still exist and help it nab those 12 million extra users for December. Filed under: media        
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| 50,000 apps later, Windows Phone is still in trouble Posted: 27 Dec 2011 03:53 PM PST
At least things seem to be picking up for the platform on the app front. It took Microsoft over a year to reach 40,000 apps on Windows Phone, but only 40 days to add another 10,000, reports All About Windows Phone. But apps alone won’t sell consumers on Windows Phone, especially during its do-or-die year of 2012. So what’s keeping the platform, which is reportedly still seeing slow sales, from finding the success of the iPhone or Android? As former Windows Phone general manager Charlie Kindel sees it, the real problem with Windows Phone doesn’t stem from hardware or software (which he deems “superior” to the competition), but instead is due to Microsoft’s inability to play nice with carriers. The company has imposed strict hardware restrictions on hardware partners, which has led to only a few devices being developed, and it has removed carriers entirely from the Windows Phone update process. Those two elements have led to carriers preferring to push Android and iOS devices, instead of Windows Phone. “Carriers own the marketing money and spend billions a year,” Kindel wrote in a blog post yesterday. “The money is provided by the other sides of the market: OS providers & device manufactures, but the carriers get to spend it; they are the aggregation point where the money actually gets spent. The carriers choose what devices get featured on those TV ads. They also choose what devices to train their RSP (retail sales professionals) to push.” While I don’t deny that carrier marketing efforts have influenced Windows Phone sales, the situation seems much more complicated. First of all, Microsoft was way too late to the game, launching Windows Phone at the end of 2010, while the iPhone and Android hit the market in 2007 and 2008 respectively. MG Siegler argues that particular point nicely. Kindel also fails to mention the explosive failure of Microsoft’s Kin phones earlier last year, which surely turned off many consumers to any future Microsoft mobile platform. I also think consumers are more savvy than the marketing sponges Kindel takes them for. He assumes people will buy what carriers tell them to, when in reality having a product that is clearly superior to the competition (which Windows Phone certainly isn’t) is more important. You can say that Windows Phone is superior as much as you like, but so far Microsoft has failed to prove that to consumers. One of the big reasons Microsoft has failed to make much of a splash with the platform is that it’s going after the same market as the iPhone and Android, when it should be focusing more on users who haven’t yet considered smartphones. I previously argued that Nokia’s Lumia 800 is an incredibly important device for Microsoft, but in many ways its cheaper sibling, the Lumia 710, is just as significant. The Lumia 710 opens the door to a wider market of users who don’t want to spend over $100 on a new phone (T-Mobile will offer it in the US for just $50 with contract). And its inexpensive hardware also makes it more suitable to the prepaid market, a quickly growing segment in which Microsoft desperately needs to find a foothold. Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia also makes it well positioned to expand Windows Phone into international markets as well — though those will admittedly be less lucrative than dominating the U.S., Europe and Asia. Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| Analysis: Anonymous stole over 9K active credit card numbers in Stratfor hack Posted: 27 Dec 2011 03:38 PM PST
In a high-profile incident that blew up the news on Christmas, the notorious hacker group Anonymous claimed to have stolen credit card data and other client details from Austin-based security think tank Stratfor, with the intent of donating $1 million in stolen cash to charity. When the story broke, it was still unclear what exactly had been stolen, but now an independent analysis has broken down the numbers. New York-based data loss and identity theft prevention service Identity Finder issued a report today that stacks up how much data was stolen from the A through M names from Stratfor’s customer list. Anonymous is expected to release data from the N through Z names in the coming days. Identity Finder says 9,651 active credit cards, 47,680 unique e-mail addresses, 25,680 unique phone numbers and 44,188 encrypted passwords. Of the passwords, the firm said 50 percent could be easily be cracked. Todd Feinman, Identity Finder’s CEO, said credit card fraud has already been “well documented.” Back on the Dec. 25, Anonymous posted five receipts of donations it had made to charities using stolen cards. "This is the latest data leak by 'breachers' who not only hack into corporations but also breach their data privacy by posting the information online,” Feinman said on the company’s blog. “Unfortunately this problem will only get worse unless corporations minimize their data footprint and shrink their data target." Stratfor is a research group and think tank that posts a daily newsletter on security issues and counts the Defense Department, Lockheed Martin and Bank of America as clients. The so-called “intelligence” firm looks especially bad in this incident because the sensitive data, including credit cards and phone numbers, was not encrypted. Stratfor’s hacked website remains down as of Tuesday afternoon. Filed under: security        
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| Siri now available on jailbroken iOS 5 devices, including iPhone 4 Posted: 27 Dec 2011 02:50 PM PST
The somewhat gimmicky Siri assistant has been the focus of the iPhone 4S’s advertising campaign, and the feature is suspected to be helping fuel major sales for that device. But as the program only officially works on the iPhone 4S, other iPhone owners have been wanting to get in on the action. To date, the options have been either illegal or fairly technical in execution. But now a new hack called Spire allows for almost any jailbroken iPhone or iPad to run the lusted-after Siri. Specifically, it allows Siri to work on a jailbroken iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, third-gen iPod touch, fourth-gen iPod touch and first-gen iPad. The free Spire app is available to download from the Cydia app store on jailbroken devices and takes about 100MB of space. The jalibreak developers who created it, Chpwn and Ryan Petrich, recommend users connect to a Wi-Fi network when downloading the app. One issue that had plagued earlier Siri ports was legality and concerns about copyright infringement. But Chpwn writes that the new app uses a different method to obtain data that makes the app legal. He writes:
Will you give the Spire app a spin on your jailbroken iPhone or iPad? Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| YouTube Slam pits viral videos against each other Posted: 27 Dec 2011 02:27 PM PST Google is attempting to remedy the dispute between which viral videos are the most entertaining with a new experiment called YouTube Slam. According to the YouTube official blog, YouTube Slam is a video discovery experiment it created in partnership with Google Research. Every week the staff will pick a new crop of videos in several categories (including Comedy, Cute, Music, Bizarre and Dance) that users can vote on. The winning videos get featured on a leaderboard. The new service allows you to earn points for predicting the Slam winners, and gives you the ability to see how you stack up against other players each week. It’s an interesting development since we don’t typically see these kinds of simple gaming mechanics used to motivate people into using a new Google service. On the surface, YouTube Slam looks like a fun way to aimlessly waste some time during the day. However, it’s actually helping Google and YouTube create more value among its user-generated videos, not to mention boost subscriber numbers for active YouTube channels. As we previously reported, YouTube is trying to focus its energies on original channels. This new feature is an extension of that. Should the “slam” voting feature roll out to other popular channels, it may boost user interaction. Filed under: media, social, VentureBeat        
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| Foxconn invests $1.1B for world’s largest smartphone production plant Posted: 27 Dec 2011 01:58 PM PST
The money will go towards expanding the Foxconn Science Park plant, which opened in Zhengzhou, Henan earlier this year. The facility will grow to operate 95 production lines and is expected to bring the company $20 billion in revenue in the next year. The plant currently employs 130,000 workers and produces 200,000 iPhones everyday. Foxconn is looking to raise those numbers by adding more employees and gearing up iPhone production. Foxconn built the Zhengzhou facility last year because of the region’s lower labor costs — employees earn a scant $1.18 an hour in Foxconn’s highest-paying factories, according to Hong Kong-based watchdog group SACOM. The company now has more than one million employees — based mostly in mainland China — who manufacture iPhones, iPads and products for other technology companies. Filed under: mobile        
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| Jailbreak! iOS 5.0.1 gets untethered exploits for non-A5 chip devices Posted: 27 Dec 2011 01:50 PM PST
The wares will work for any iOS devices running the 5.0.1 version of the operating system and will work for all of Apple’s mobile hardware lineup except the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2. Thanks to iOS hacker pod2g, whose exploits form the basis of the jailbreak package, non-A5 devices can be jailbroken while untethered. The fine folks at the Dev-Team Blog put the untethered jailbreak into redsn0w 0.9.10 (available now as a Windows or Mac download) and PwnageTool, and the Chronic Dev Team made a nice little Cydia package for your jailbreaking pleasure. As previously mentioned, this jailbreak is compatible with most currently available Apple iOS mobile devices, including the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and the original iPad, as well as third-generation and fourth-generation iPod Touch units. If you’re already running a tethered jailbreak, you can update to the untethered jailbreak via the Corona utility in Cydia. An untethered jailbreak for A5 chip devices, including the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, is not yet available but is in the works, wrote pod2g just days ago. “I know that a lot of people are waiting for the A5 jailbreak,” wrote the hacker on his blog. “I need to focus on A5 and hope I can find a path quick.” Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat        
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| 3DS sells over 4M units in Japan, first premium downloadable content title announced Posted: 27 Dec 2011 01:27 PM PST Despite a rough start both critically and financially, the Nintendo 3DS has now surpassed four million sales in Japan alone. It has been an odd year for Nintendo. July brought plummeting stocks for the game company after the lukewarm reaction to the 3DS. Nintendo responded swiftly with a price cut in July, making its new handheld much more affordable. Back in September we learned the $80 price cut had increased sales threefold for Nintendo’s struggling handheld. Between a weak launch lineup and criticism of the surprisingly short battery life, even this tripling of sales failed to stifle the inevitable year-end loss. Right before Christmas, Enterbrain, publisher of Japanese magazine Famitsu, announced that the 3DS had reached over 4 million sales in Japan. Christmas week was responsible for over 500,000 of these sales. This news was soon followed by the revelation that both Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 had reached over 1 million sales since their respective launches in November and December, making them the first games on the portable console to reach platinum status. Nintendo has also confirmed last month’s rumor that it would finally be including paid downloadable content (DLC) in future games. The first game with paid downloadable content will be the new Fire Emblem: Kakusei (which translates to Fire Emblem: Awakening) for the 3DS, and will cost “several hundred yen” according to reports from Nikkei. The content will be purchasable either by pre-paid cards or by credit card, identical to the current system on 3DSWare. More games will support the new feature in the coming summer, and will continue to live on in Nintendo’s next home console, the Wii U. During the Nintendo Direct live webcast late last night, a new trailer was unveiled for the game, which now touts an April 19th release date. No further mention was made of the DLC during the show. via The Verge, Techcrunch Filed under: games, VentureBeat        
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| LCD display makers to pay $553M in price-fixing conspiracy case Posted: 27 Dec 2011 01:18 PM PST
The companies are accused of colluding to artificially inflate the prices of LFT LCD panel prices for seven years, starting in 1999. This is just the latest sanction in an ongoing series of lawsuits and probes that have brought against the cartel by consumers, state and federal governments, and international organizations since 2006. Of this settlement amount, $501 million will be used to issue partial refunds to consumers in 24 states who purchased products that used the offending panels between 1999 and 2006. The companies are also paying $37 million to government and other public agencies that purchased the panels. “This price-fixing scheme manipulated the playing field for businesses that abide by the rules, and left consumers to pay artificially higher costs for televisions, computers and other electronics,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement. So far, the companies and executives have racked up more than $890 million in fines, according to Reuters. In 2008, LG Display, Sharp and Chunghwa Picture Tubes plead guilty to criminal charges for the price fixing conspiracy and agreed to pay $585 million in fines. According to the Justice Department, the companies held meetings at which they agreed on a fixed price for the panels and exchanged sales information in order to keep the agreement in check. Under this latest settlement, Samsung would pay the largest amount at $240 million. Sharp would pay $115.5 million, Chimei Innolux $110.3 million, Hitachi $29 million, and HannStar $25.7 million. The total amount could still rise, since some other defendants have not yet agreed to settle. In addition to paying the latest fines, the companies have agreed to help prosecute other defendants. Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Christmas marks record high for Android and iOS activiations, app downloads Posted: 27 Dec 2011 12:41 PM PST
Smartphones and tablets have surpassed the luxury phase, and are proliferating the market as every day household items. Though they still haven’t taken over feature phones, which own around 60 percent of the market, smartphones are widely adopted. Because of that adoption, they are being given as gifts left and right, with 2011 being the biggest year for Android and iOS devices as of yet. According to Flurry, an app analytics provider, Android and iOS device activations averaged around 1.5 million a day for December, until Christmas when it shot up 358 percent to 6.8 activations in one day. Clearly, lucky boys and girls across the globe opened Santa’s gifts to find Xooms, iPhones, iPads, and more. According to a Nielsen report, 44 percent of kids in the United States requested an iPad for the holidays. If children aged 6-to-12 years-old couldn’t get the tablet they desired, their second choice was an iPod touch or iPhone.
Prior to Christmas day, December app sales were steady around 1.8 million a day. Then, when everyone was finished opening gifts on the 25th, app downloads jumped 125 percent to 242 million. The rise started around 7am and continued throughout the day until it peaked at around 8pm and fell as holiday meal-stuffed people drifted off to sleep. Perhaps Apple’s Siri commercial featuring Santa isn’t as silly as it comes off. Smart devices are becoming the norm, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Rudolph gets laid-off in exchange for Siri’s sleek purple microphone. Filed under: mobile        
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| AOL media talent loss continues: Joystiq editor departing for Vox Posted: 27 Dec 2011 12:08 PM PST
The exodus, which was first announced in a personal blog post by Engadget Managing Editor Darren Murph, also includes two other Joystiq staffers. Together, the former employees plan to launch a video game vertical for Vox Media, which is known for producing Sports-minded SB Nation and technology-focused news site The Verge. Over the past few years, AOL has attempted to shift away from its roots as a dial-up Internet service provider in favor of growing its media and advertising business. However, some of the company’s investors are worried that its media business is in trouble, due to poor profit returns on acquisitions and fleeing employees at the top. The first crop of talent departures came in March, when Engadget Editor-In-Chief Josh Topolsky and Managing Editor Nilay Patel left the company, later launching This Is My Next (which is now The Verge). Another of AOL’s big media properties, TechCrunch, has also experienced several employee departures, including TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Senior Editor Sarah Lacy, columnist Paul Carr, publisher Heather Harde and advertising director Vaughn Brown. Also worth noting is the departure of AOL’s President of Applications and Commerce Group Brad Garlinghouse in November. Photo via Joystiq Filed under: games, media, VentureBeat        
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| NameCheap offers you a discount to leave SOPA-supporting domain hosting services Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:42 AM PST
NameCheap has annouced MoveYourDomainDay, which aims to get customers from SOPA-supporting domain hosting services to defect. The company isn’t naming names; it’s only saying it is offering a discount to customers who “wish to leave service providers who support SOPA.” On December 29th, for $6.99 customers can move their com, net, org, info or biz domains from any other hosting service to NameCheap. In addition to the discounted transfer rate, NameCheap plans to donate one dollar from each transaction to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to help fight SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. To get the discount, just go to NameCheap’s site on December 29th and enter the code SOPASucks. There is a one hundred domain limit. On its website, NameCheap displays a post that outlines its opposition to SOPA and includes a statement from CEO Richard Kirkendall:
In recent weeks GoDaddy announced its support of SOPA and then withdrew support following fierce backlash from its customers and opponents of SOPA. Following the company announcing its support for the bill, GoDaddy lost thousands of customers in the course of just a few days. GoDaddy has since released a statement saying it no longer supports SOPA, but it looks like the damage may have already been done. Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| 2012 predictions: It’s doom & gloom for Amazon, RIM and Zynga Posted: 27 Dec 2011 11:25 AM PST
✓ The Groupon juggernaut will slow down In hindsight and as an entrepreneur, I would say that I wasn't risk-taking enough in my predictions. Now that I'm putting together predictions for 2012, there's a global crisis looming, Europe is about to collapse, China's real estate bubble is bursting and the U.S. is possibly being sucked deeper into the economic abyss, so what do I have to lose? Especially if the Mayan predictions come true, no one will be around to mock my predictions in 2013. So doom and gloom plus bold and big is the general theme for this 5th annual edition of my technology predictions. And here they are: Mojo Shifts from Amazon to Big Box Retailers Several states will lift their sales tax amnesties for online businesses in 2012. Those amnesties have provided huge competitive advantage to Amazon. How many shoppers do you know who check out items at brick and mortar stores and then buy them on Amazon? I believe those days are numbered and Amazon will take a big blow once the amnesties are lifted. The companies to gain the most from this are big box retailers (i.e. Walmart, Target, Best Buy) and possibly eBay. The ecommerce space has become like a Hollywood fitness guru that presents the latest, hottest biz model every year. It went from flash sales to vertical flash sales to curated ecommerce to LoMo social commerce to LoMo SoMo OhNo and so on. While some sites are making a killing, I don't see them growing big enough to benefit significantly from Amazon's loss as much as the big box retailers. Most of these new ecommerce companies struggle with logistics, inventory management, customer acquisition and fighting to maintain healthy margins as they work on those other areas. RIM Finally Sells RIM is like Mikey from the movie Swingers. Each misstep it makes leaves you cringing and yelling at it to stop. RIM still has a loyal following since it has the best email platform for mobile devices, but I've seen that stronghold crack in recent months. Anecdotally, some friends who were die-hard Blackberry users have finally shifted to "real" smartphones, whether the iPhone or an Android device. The recent news of Amazon, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung and HTC passing on acquiring RIM narrows the field of potential buyers. I predict revenue and sales numbers will only get worse in 2012, when eventually some private equity shop will come in and acquire the company with the hope of turning things around. Android Takes 50% of the Tablet Market Google's Andy Rubin recently announced that 700,000 Android devices are being activated daily. The freight train continues, so I would recommend that Apple hire Denzel to stop this madness. Earlier this year I predicted (even before hearing about Amazon's Kindle Fire) that by 2013 Android would hold over 50% of the tablet market. I was wrong. It'll happen by 2012 due to the Kindle Fire. The latest IDC figures have Android's market share of tablets at 32.4%, so 50% by the end of 2012 might be considered a safe prediction. But the iPad is an amazing device, so market share won't be easily taken. (Disclosure: my wife works on the Android team; nothing related to this article was discussed with her.) Zynga Loses Half Its Market Cap and Hold on the Social Gaming Space Right now Zynga has a market cap over $6 billion, so this prediction is not worth crying over. CEO Mark Pincus and his investors have done extremely well and will continue to do so. I believe Zynga is overvalued if you take EA as a comparable. Both are currently valued at over $6 billion, but Zynga generated $597 million in revenues while EA generated $3.6 billion in revenues. I don't want to bore you with a numbers analysis, so I'll focus on my primary concern about Zynga's ability to maintain its leadership position in the social gaming space. It's well known that Zynga is data driven and created a fantastic formula for success, but gaming is still a hit-driven business, and you need to produce great games by talented people. Everyone's heard that the floodgates of talent will pour out of Zynga once the lockup period is over or employees are fully vested. Also, Zynga has been making “headcount” acquisitions of companies based on their numbers of engineers, so I assume if it continues down this path, it won't be able to obtain and attract the best talent in the market. The social gaming landscape will trend to multiple fiefdoms in 2012 rather than one great empire. Not to be completely doom and gloom, I am bullish on Facebook and Foursquare for 2012. Facebook is here to stay as an essential part of Internet life. And Foursquare has proven me wrong. I thought Facebook's entry into Foursquare's space was going to be a big blow. Instead, the company has solidified its leadership position in the location-based market, and 2012 looks to be more of the same. What are your predictions for 2012? What do you think about my four main predictions?
[Top image from sdecoret/Shutterstock] Filed under: deals, games, mobile, VentureBeat        
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| How to get a programming job at a startup (infographic) Posted: 27 Dec 2011 10:58 AM PST
If you’re a programmer, here’s an infographic of tips to help you get that job you’re looking for. Silicon Valley has a number of resources for programmers looking to stretch their digital fingers into the startup world. These resources are cropping up now as startups multiply like that cellular reproduction video in biology class. From Apsalar to Zozi, the sheer number of startups may be intimidating to programmers on the job hunt. So, where do you begin? First check out the type of startup you want work for. Do you want to get in on the ground floor, with a few computers in a shared workspace? Or do you want to hop on after the pieces are in place but need some tweaking to send it off to a fourth round of funding? After you’ve determined what stage of startup you’re looking for, it’s time to hone in on the right company. Listings of startups are all over, if you look in the right places. As the infographic below shows, venture capital firms are a great place to find startups lists to help narrow down your search. You can find these on a portfolio page available on most VC websites. Some VC firms, such as First Round Capital, deal with early stage startups, while others, such as Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), focus on later stage investments. If you know what size startup you’d like to work for, discovering the kind of investments a VC firm administers will also help give your search focus. Venture capitalists also sometimes divide themselves by type of startup. For example, if you are interested in green technology, Khosla Ventures focuses on the space. Another place to look are startup accelerators, such as Y Combinator and 500 Startups. These companies take on startups and help them grow with both capital and advice. They provide “class” lists for each round of startups they take. Once you’ve found a startup that appeals to you, it’s time to get the interview. Attending local hackathons will not only put your name out there, but your abilities. Hackathons attract more than just individual programmers. Startup employees also come to show their stuff, or support a cause. It’s a good arena for networking. Putting your work on GitHub acts as a digital resume, as well. Check out the infographic below for more ways to get hired by that startup. Leave your advice/success stories in the comments. Infographic via Monetate Filed under: VentureBeat        
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| Five new year’s resolutions for Enterprise IT Posted: 27 Dec 2011 10:00 AM PST
New Relic had an amazing year in 2011 and we spent a lot of it at industry events talking to senior enterprise IT architects and Operations teams. We heard loud and clear that these teams are pursuing ‘agile’ initiatives — they want to be faster, more productive and want to keep pace with their development team counterparts. And when it comes to IT management, there are plenty of steps IT can take to meet their agile goals. Here are 5 recommendations to get started: 5. When it’s renewal time for your shelf ware, don’t settle for status quo. How many tools do you have that are not being used at all? Do you need them? Make 2012 the year where you trim the fat of your legacy systems. Stop paying for tools you don't use. 4. Buy solutions that let you go faster, with immediate time to value. There is a better way and better management tools to help you get there. And what's more, you may already have them in your organization. SaaS solutions that are easy to acquire and implement can reduce time to value from months to days. 3. There's still time to catch the cloud train. Move at least one critical app there in 2012. Feel like you're late to the cloud game? Don't worry. It's still early, but don't let shadow IT projects have all the fun. Learn from your more agile peers and deploy at least one app to the cloud. Put your cloud strategy into action and start reaping the benefits. 2. Empower your team with actionable data, not just raw statistics. A graph is useful, but do you know where to go from there? Today's modern tools combine usability with data visibility. Don't use tools designed a decade ago. As you spin up new services in the cloud or your own datacenter, use tools that give you the most visibility. 1. Reap the benefits of SaaS 2.0. Be the star who saves your company millions because you adopted tools that don’t require professional services, training sessions, annual maintenance, high-pressure sales, but are just as effective. Filed under: cloud, VentureBeat        
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Android devices more than doubled their typical activation rate over the Christmas weekend, with 3.7 million devices activated, according to 
Big data startup 
Proving yet again that 2012 is going to be a big year for 
The 
Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform now has more than 50,000 apps available — a significant milestone, but one that still puts it far behind Apple’s 500,000 iOS apps and Google’s more than 380,000 Android apps.
Hackers have just taken the wraps off some handy new jailbreaking tools for iOS devices.
Seven major LCD display makers have agreed to pay more than $553 million for illegally conspiring to fix prices of thin film transistor (LFT) LCD panels used in television, computer and laptop screens. Samsung Electronics, Sharp and Chimei Innolux are paying the largest portion of the proposed multi-state antitrust settlement, which still requires court approval.
AOL is losing another top employee from its media division — this time it’s video-game blog Joystiq’s Editor, Chris Grant, who made the announcement in a 
This sponsored post is produced by Chris Cook, 
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