We’ll just come out and say it: this is so awesome. In fact, if you want to just take our word for it, skip the copy and head straight to the video after the break — you really only need to watch the first four or so minutes… Still here? Alright then. The shiny cube comes straight from Espoo and houses a N900, but the only way to get into the box is to plug it into a computer, establish a link, and then type in the right terminal command to unlock the lid (spoiler: it’s company motto “connecting people” — how clever) in addition to — poof — smoke! (Our favorite part.) Given the technical prerequisites, our guess is this has something to do with Nokia’s the hack-centric “Push” program, but really that’s just a guess. Like we said, video after the break, and if you opt to watch past the first couple minutes, you’ll get to see a plastic fox. Trust us.
[Thanks, Matija]
Video language learning website EnglishCentral recently raised a total of $3.5 million, according to an SEC filing. Part of that funding was $1.38 million from a previous convertible debt round, making the amount raised in the current series A financing $2.1 million. EnglishCentral is backed by Google Ventures and Atlas Venture. The fact that Google Ventures was the lead investor in a seed round last October was reported, but the amount invested was never disclosed. Based on the information in the filing, it is possible that that the seed round was in the form of the $1.38 million convertible note and is now converting into equity with the additional $2.1 million investment.
The filing does not say who the invested in the new round, but Rich Miner of Google Ventures is listed as a director of the company. Google Ventures is Google’s venture arm which launched last April with an initial $100 million and can invest in pretty much anything, although mostly it’s been putting money into clean tech startups.
Love it or hate it, Google Wave is proving to be a great way for people to express themselves creatively in the form of videos. We’ve seen it with Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting. We’ve seen it with the Declaration of Independance. And now we have a 2009 year-in-review Google Wave video.
There’s not much to say other than this is really well done. It was created by Whirled Interactive, the same group that made the movie Waves. These guys are good.
Well, even with rampant piracy, review craziness, and that funky approval process, it’s good to hear that someone can still make a truckload of cash on the App Store. According to Reuters, that someone is Tapulous, who is apparently making almost a million dollars a month thanks to twenty million downloads of their Tap Tap Revenge game. We recently talked to Andrew Lacy on the release of said game back in October, and he told us that the game’s in-app purchase features (you get the game for cheap, and then have a chance to buy lots of extra music to play in packs and bundles) would be the “first big test of in-app commerce at a much grander scale.” Looks like the test was a success.
Of course, there’s not too many details on how exactly that million dollars comes in — I’m sure there was a flurry of sales right around the release of the app (as press was dropping), and you’d expect them to be a little higher during the holidays (sales of video games usually are, no matter what platform you’re talking about). So it’s not completely proven that this kind of income is necessarily sustainable. But still, it’s good to hear from the folks at Tapulous that someone can release a game and roll in the cash from Apple’s platform.
‘Tis the season shop until your brains melt (or skip it all entirely, depending on your interpretation of the term holiday). In that spirit, for the next few weeks we’ll be rounding up a dozen daily deals courtesy our friends at DealNews.com. Each afternoon tune in to TUAW for this handy summary. Keep in mind that while our posts will live on, the deals won’t. Each is lovingly generated by the deal-bot every day, so get ‘em while they’re hot. Enjoy!
MacUpdate Promo: [Home & Hobbies Software] Videobox 2 and MainMenu 2 for Mac downloads for free
Hulu Labs, the premium video content site’s platform that offers users experimental new features, has just rolled out a nifty new feature called Captions Search.
Captions Search lets you search for keywords within the closed captions for videos of TV shows on the site. Closed Captioning is the transcript and text from a television or video screen that’s often used as a way for the hearing-impaired to watch television.
Paris-based video sharing site Dailymotion has released an iPhone app. In fact, two versions exist. A free to download version (iTunes link) that is supported by ads and a premium ad-free version that costs ?4.99, which seems a little on the high side, although that depends on how intrusive those ads are to you.
Like the plethora of competing iPhone video offerings, Dailymotion, which as been called the French YouTube but has much wider reach across continental Europe and elsewhere, is at a significant disadvantage compared to the Google-owned video sharing site, which comes pre-installed on the iPhone. That said, the functionality provided by Dailymotion’s iPhone app at least matches YouTube’s offering.
Looks like Dell’s trying to jump out ahead of the CES Atom N450 netbook rush by announcing a new version of the Inspiron Mini 10 a couple weeks before we all head to Vegas — and we can’t say we blame them, since there’s a lot here to like. The newly streamlined case can accommodate both a six-cell battery good for nine and half hours of use without the usual netbook bulge, and inside that next-gen Atom can be paired with an optional Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator for HD video playback. Also on the options list: four case colors, Bluetooth, WWAN, GPS, a TV tuner, and a 1366 x 768 display, in case you actually want to see some of those accelerated video pixels. Prices will start at $299 when this guy hits in early January, but we’ll see how much all these options add to the final pricetag. Press release after the break.
Continue reading New Dell Inspiron Mini 10 debuts, features Atom N450
Like other leagues, the NHL continues to see a major uptick in video use and is looking for ways to make the most of it with fans and advertisers. Once heralded as the up-and-coming video player for the National Hockey League, the NHL Network Online is being benched today in favor of NHL VideoCenter, a less-cluttered, higher quality, more social contender with expanded content.
VideoCenter was developed with NeuLion, as was the predecessor that launched for the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs. The most visible change at first is the environment. The distracting, rotating ad panels are gone in favor of bolder pre-roll or banner ads, leaving more space for the player and a better chance for the advertiser to be noticed. The video window is larger. Sharing was available before but this player includes buttons for Twitter, Digg and Facebook plus the ability to resize the embedded player. A single highlight can be shared or the package.
As the way consumers read books evolves, there is an opportunity for mobile technologies to connect consumers with their favorite reads. Mobile Roadie, a startup that helps develops iPhone apps, is collaborating with one of the most foremost publishers, Random House, to launch iPhone apps for authors.
The Random House group will launch free individual iPhone applications, powered by Mobile Roadie, for three of its bestselling authors?Steve Berry, Sophie Kinsella, and Karen Marie Monin. With this new application, fans will be able to preview books, access bonus content, interact with other fans, check upcoming author appearances, listen to audiobook clips, watch author videos and book trailers, and more.