As Testing Ramps Up, Glitch Launches A New Site And A Trippy New Trailer

Since we first reported on a company called Tiny Speck back in July of 2009, there has been a lot of interest in what they are working on. You see, it’s a company founded by a bunch of people who helped start Flickr, and their project, Glitch, is actually a return of sorts to Flickr’s gaming roots. Last February, we did an early preview of the game. And in August, we noted that testing was well underway. An update to Glitch today brings a brand new website and a new video to explain the game.

This new exposure comes after a weekend in which Glitch underwent its most extensive user testing yet. The game was open for some 74 hours over the weekend, and thousands of users (of the tens of thousands in the waiting line) were let into the game to try it out. The test looks like it was a successful one, and the new website says that the game is now on track for beta testing early next year, with a tentative launch also slated for early next year. The company promises that going forward, they’ll move all updates from their private alpha blog, to the company blog.

But the key to Glitch (if you can’t play it) is to see it in action. So check out the video below. Yes, it’s weird. Yes, it’s awesome.

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Foursquare Makes Its West Coast Office Official, Is Hiring

Mayor Gavin Newsom’s claim that Foursquare is a San Francisco startup just got a little bit more accurate. Foursquare, which has famously worked out of the Square offices here in SF for quite sometime, has finally bit the bullet and made its West Coast dalliance official today with a “We’re heading west!” blog post.

“In the past year, we had a major growth spurt: from about 100,000 to over 4.5 million users; from a single phone platform to six; from 50-person foursquare flashmobs to 1,000 person epic swarms; and we now have thousands of developers building on the the foursquare API. The biggest challenge: hiring fast enough to support that surge. Despite growing from 5 employees to 35, we can’t expand as quickly as we want.

So, to help attract the best talent in the world, we decided it’s time to open an outpost in San Francisco.”

The location based startup will not be moving from San Francisco Chronicle Building where it’s set up defacto shop since summer, and Square will be freeing up more room for the company to hire a full team of West Coast engineers in addition to its 35 current employees. Four employees already work on the West Coast include Tristan Walker, Holger Luedorf and two operations engineers. With $21.4M in funding led by Andreesen, Foursquare has definitely got room to grow.

Photo: niallkennedy

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Nexaria BC2 router supports iPhone tethering for some reason (video)

3G/4G Router That Supports Tethered iPhone

Posted: 21-Nov-2010 [Source: 3G Store]

[The Nexaira Business Class 2 3G/4G Router lets AT&T iPhone users create a WiFi HotSpot using an iPhone for $20 per month.]

Cary, IL -- 3Gstore.com and Nexaira are announcing the immediate availability of the new Nexaira Business Class 2 (BC2) 3G/4G Router that supports iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G tethering. Plug your iPhone into the Nexaira BC2 Router and you can instantly create a secure WiFi hotspot using the 3G connection from your phone. As an added bonus, the Nexaira BC2 Router will charge your iPhone while it is plugged in. 3Gstore.com is the exclusive distributor for Nexaira's iPhone tethering solution in the USA.

Unlike other iPhone tethering solutions, this method does not require you to jailbreak your iPhone, which can void your warranty. Simply add the appropriate data plan from AT&T's web site or the free MyWireless App and enable tethering on your iPhone (adds $20/month to your bill; can be disabled when you don't need it). Once tethering is enabled, connect your iPhone 3G, 3GS or iPhone 4 to the Nexaira BC2 Router via your iPhone USB cable and within a few seconds, your iPhone will indicate that it is in "Internet Tethering" mode. The BC2 router then serves as a WiFi hotspot that multiple WiFi-capable devices like the iPod Touch, iPad, laptop, and more can use to connect to the internet; ethernet devices can also connect via the router's LAN port. While using your iPhone as a modem, you can continue to make and receive calls as well as access all the applications that are installed on your iPhone, including send/receive email/text messaging or any other internet app.

"We are excited to partner with Nexaira and offer this exclusive feature for our customers," said Michael Ginsberg, President of 3Gstore.com. "Customers have been asking for this feature ever since tethering was officially supported by Apple last year."

The iPhone/Router tethering solution is ideal for a variety of situations:

Simple and cost-effective failover solution for home or work

Does your DSL, Cable or T1 line go down occasionally? What is your backup plan? Purchase a Nexaira BC2 Router and next time your internet goes down, you can be back up and running in a matter of seconds. Just plug your iPhone into your BC2 router and you are back online. No need to sign a 2-year contract and pay $60/mo for a data plan, simply enable or disable the tethering feature as needed and only pay when you need it.

Convenient WiFi hotspot for your home, hotel, business meeting or car

Keep the Nexaira BC2 in your briefcase and next time you need internet access on the go, you have everything you need. Open the MyWireless app and enable tethering, plug the iPhone into your BC2 Router and a few seconds later, you have a hotspot. The BC2 also provides one ethernet port, so if you have an ethernet-only device, just plug it into the router.

Affordable temporary/occasional mobile broadband option for travelers

Tethering your iPhone is a great alternative to expensive hotel WiFi, un-secured and unreliable free hotspots, or signing a 2-year contract for mobile broadband service that you only need from time to time. Pairing the tethered iPhone with the BC2 allows you to easily provide internet access to all of your devices wherever you need internet access, on your terms.

Allow iPad and iPod Touch internet access from your iPhone

On vacation and the kids have an iPad or iPod Touch? Plug your iPhone into the BC2 router and a few seconds later, all your iPads and iPod Touches can easily access the internet, even while traveling in a car.

International Customers with iPhones

As long as your carrier officially supports tethering, all you need is the Nexaira BC2 and international power adapter (sold separately) and you are ready to tether your iPhone and create a hotspot. 3Gstore.com ships to over 200 countries worldwide via FedEx.

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Regulators perturbed by Comcast's executive reshuffling, NBC Universal takeover to blame

By Darren Murph posted Nov 22nd 2010 6:35PM Hold your horses, Bubsy. While it looked like there were but a few Is to dot and Ts to cross before Comcast's takeover of NBC Universal was official, folks in high places are now shaking their heads at a recent decision by the carrier. As the story goes, Comcast and NBC Universal are still in talks with the government over the proposed takeover, and it seems that a few wires were crossed in recent days; Comcast decided to announce a new management slate for NBC Universal just a few days ago, despite the fact that the takeover hasn't actually been green-lit. According to an inside report over at The New York Times, one unnamed official in Washington had this to say: "For a deal this large, and one that hasn't been approved, Comcast's behavior is presumptuous and arrogant." Of course, it's not like this trigger-pulling in and of itself is reason for the whole deal to collapse, but it certainly won't make things any easier on either company. So much for taking on those new roles (and accompanying raises) prior to Turkey Day, huh?

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Netflix Finally Brings Streaming-Only Plan to U.S.

Americans have one less thing to envy about life in Canada starting today: Netflix is now offering its streaming-only plan in the U.S. As predicted last month, the plan costs $7.99 per month and allows for unlimited video on-demand. The pricing is exactly the same as the revised rate recently released for Hulu Plus.

While it was clear that Netflix streaming was popular, this news revealed just how crucial on-demand is to the future of the company. Jesse Becker, the Netflix VP of marketing, said:

“You might also wonder why we haven’t introduced a new plan that includes only DVDs by mail. The fact is that Netflix members are already watching more TV episodes and movies streamed instantly over the Internet than on DVDs, and we expect that trend to continue. Creating the best user experience that we can around watching instantly is how we’re spending the vast majority of our time and resources. Because of this, we are not creating any plans that are focused solely on DVDs by mail.”

To that point, Netflix has raised the prices of all of its unlimited DVD rental plans. The two most popular plans, which include one or two DVDs out at a time, increased by $1 each to $9.99, and $14.99, respectively. Rental plans including three to eight DVDs out at a time each had incremental increases, as represented in the chart.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, CEFutcher

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iOS 4.2 available today, brings the iPad into the multitasking era (update: it's live)

Apple's iOS 4.2 Available Today for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch

Major Software Update Brings Multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay & AirPrint to iPad

CUPERTINO, California-November 22, 2010-Apple® today announced that iOS 4.2, the latest version of the world's most advanced mobile operating system, is available today for download for iPad™, iPhone® and iPod touch®. iOS 4.2 brings over 100 new features from iOS 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 to iPad including Multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay® and AirPrint.

"iOS 4.2 makes the iPad a completely new product, just in time for the holiday season," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Once again, the iPad with iOS 4.2 will define the target that other tablets will aspire to, but very few, if any, will ever be able to hit."

iPad users can now run their favorite apps and switch between them instantly, while preserving iPad's legendary battery life. Users can organize their apps with drag-and-drop simplicity using Folders, and Mail now features a Unified Inbox, fast inbox switching and a threaded message view.

Game Center allows iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users to challenge and play friends or be matched automatically with new opponents, showcase their scores and achievements, and discover new games their friends are playing.

AirPlay is a new feature for streaming music, video and photos wirelessly from iPad, iPhone and iPod touch to Apple TV®, transforming Apple TV into a great accessory for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. iOS users also will be able to use AirPort Express® and AirPlay to stream wirelessly to any stereo or powered speakers, or directly to AirPlay-enabled speakers coming to market in the months ahead.

AirPrint is a next-generation Wi-Fi print architecture that dramatically simplifies printing by completely eliminating printer drivers. A selection of AirPrint enabled printers including the HP Photosmart, HP LaserJet Pro and HP Officejet will be the first to support printing direct from iOS devices. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to any printer that supports AirPrint.

The Find My iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) feature is now free to use without a MobileMe? subscription and helps you locate your missing device.* The Find My iPhone app is a free download on the App Store? and lets users easily locate a missing device on a map and have it display a message or play a sound. Users can even remotely lock or wipe data from a lost device to protect privacy.

Other new features that iOS 4.2 brings to the iPad include: the ability to rent TV episodes directly to iPad using the iTunes® App with a 30 day viewing window and a 48 hour session window once playback is started; the ability to easily find and highlight specific words and phrases on web pages in Safari®; enhanced enterprise support so businesses can take advantage of stronger security features, new device management capabilities and improved enterprise integration; industry-leading accessibility enhancements; and support for 25 additional languages, including Korean, Portuguese and Traditional Chinese.

The revolutionary iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before. You can browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more, using the innovative Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPad weighs just 1.5 pounds, making it easy to carry and use anywhere.

Today, customers have downloaded more than seven billion apps from the groundbreaking App Store and more than 300,000 apps are available to consumers in 90 countries, with more than 40,000 native iPad apps. Over 125 million iOS users around the world can choose from an incredible range of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Availability
The iOS 4.2 update is available today to download to iPad, iPhone and iPod touch by syncing the device with iTunes 10.1. iOS 4.2 is compatible with iPad, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, second and third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB) and new iPod touch. Some features may not be available on all products. For example, Multitasking requires iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB) or later.

*The free Find My iPhone feature is available for iPhone 4, iPad or new iPod touch (4th generation).

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

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eBay Releases All-in-One Buying, Selling & Scanning iPhone App

eBay has released version 2.0 of its primary Phone app, eBay Mobile, the company announced Monday.

Version 2.0 [iTunes link], which appeared in the App Store Friday, allows users to buy and sell on eBay’s flagship auction site, as well as scan product barcodes for comparison shopping. Previously, the latter two capabilities were available only in independent apps, eBay selling [iTunes link] and RedLaser [iTunes link], the latter of which was acquired in June.

Now users can do everything on their iPhones that they could previously do on eBay.com — and then some. The integration of RedLaser’s barcode scanning technology is particularly useful, allowing users to quickly compare eBay’s prices to retail, and to pre-populate information about the items they’re selling (which, admittedly, will only be useful for those few goods that still have their barcodes intact).

For a more comprehensive overview of the new features, check out the video below.

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Samsung says it's sold 600,000 Galaxy Tabs worldwide

Samsung said it expected to sell a million Galaxy Tabs this year, and it looks like it may not be far off that mark, if it doesn't exceed it -- the company has apparently told The Korea Herald that it's sold 600,000 of the tablets worldwide so far, less than a month after launch. That includes 30,000 units sold in Korea since its November 14th launch there, but Samsung doesn't seem to be dishing out specific numbers for the rest of the world just yet. Of course, as impressive as that is, it may well be all downhill from here once word of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's frown gets around.

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Verizon bringing 150/35Mbps internet to FiOS customers, enraging customers of all other ISPs

New Verizon FiOS Internet 150/35 Mbps Offer Launches Consumers Into Broadband's Fastest Lane

Powerful Speed Tier Becomes Nation's Fastest Mass-Market Internet Service

NEW YORK, Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon is launching 150/35 megabits per second (Mbps) Internet service – the fastest mass-market broadband service in the nation – over the company's all-fiber-optic FiOS network. The company has begun to roll out the ultra-high-speed service to the majority of the more than 12.5 million homes that the FiOS network passes, and will make the service available to Verizon FiOS small-business customers by the end of the year.

Verizon's new Internet service surpasses competitors' offers by pumping three times the downstream speed previously available to FiOS customers.

(NOTE: To view a video about the fastest Internet speeds available to residential broadband customers by a major ISP to date, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQjIsaf3S2A.)

"By offering the fastest mass-market Internet service in the nation, we're supporting the immediate and future speed needs of bandwidth-hungry consumers," said Eric Bruno, Verizon vice president of product management. "The new 150/35 Mbps FiOS Internet offer establishes a new benchmark for high-speed Internet in America, and paves the way for a flurry of emerging bandwidth-intensive applications to reach mainstream status."

The Difference for Customers

With a downstream speed of 150 Mbps, consumers can download a two-hour, standard-definition movie (1.5 gigabytes) in less than 80 seconds, and a two-hour HD movie (5 GB) in less than four and a half minutes.

Downloading 20 high-resolution photographs (100 megabytes) would take less than five and a half seconds using the 150/35 Mbps service. With the 35 Mbps upstream speed, consumers can upload those same 20 high-resolution photos in less than 23 seconds.*

The 150/35 Mbps residential offer will be available to the majority of FiOS-eligible households, and sold as a stand-alone service starting at $194.99 a month when purchased with a one-year service agreement and Verizon wireline voice service.

Verizon will continue to offer on a stand-alone basis its next-fastest FiOS Internet speed of 50/20 Mbps, as well as its 25/25 and 15/5 speed tiers. FiOS Internet speeds of 35/35 Mbps, 25/25 Mbps and 15/5 Mbps will continue to be available in double-, triple- and quadruple-play bundles matched with FiOS TV, FiOS Digital Voice and Verizon Wireless service.

Bruno said the 150/35 Mbps tier takes advantage of Verizon's robust all-digital, all-fiber-optic network, which extends directly to consumers' homes and will ultimately serve 18 million households. The new speed tier will provide immediate value to consumers already using applications that require high downstream and upstream bandwidth.

"Our new 150/35 Mbps offer will also support burgeoning bandwidth-intensive applications such as Internet video to TV and PC, 3D TV and movie downloads, high-definition and real-time video conferencing, and online data backup," said Bruno.

Amy Lind, broadband research manager for the global technology market intelligence firm IDC, said: "This is about more than Verizon zooming to the top of the broadband speed chart. It's a reflection of Verizon's vision. Verizon understands that this kind of bandwidth will fuel new product and service development down the road and is poised to allow its customers to reap the benefits of those innovations in the future."

Introduction of the new 150/35 Mbps FiOS Internet service follows recent Verizon field trials that achieved connection speeds of nearly 1 gigabit per second (Gbps), both downstream and upstream. When a more advanced XG-PON2 technology was connected to the network several weeks later, connection speeds of 10 Gbps were reached on Verizon's fiber-optic network.

Once service is connected, Verizon FiOS Internet customers have access to the Verizon In-Home Agent, a free application that gives them valuable tools to set up services. In-Home Agent will help customers configure Wi-Fi links, set up and manage voice mail, auto-fix video problems, and trouble-shoot and correct Internet issues – all with the simple click of a mouse.

* Upload and download time estimates based on maximum connection speeds. Actual throughput speeds will vary.

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Apple rolling out Apple TV 4.1 alongside iOS 4.2 today for perfect AirPlay harmony (update: it's live)

Macworld is reporting that Apple's promising to roll out (at long last!) Apple TV 4.1 at the same time iOS 4.2 hits, at around 1PM Eastern today (roughly nowish). Sure, we could hit some last minute snags, but we want to believe. Especially after we reviewed the new versions of the softwares on our new-lease-on-life iPad, blasting AirPlay video all over the house like it was going out of style. In addition to being able to play video to your Apple TV from your iTunes-equipped PC or iOS-based device, the new Apple TV software adds VoiceOver support for spoken menus and meta data.

Update: It's live, we're downloading it now and basically just having the time of our lives!

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Chrome Extension Lets You Just Add Jimmy Wales

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Yes, Christmas has come early again this season with the launch of Jimmy Wales’ annual appeal for Wikimedia Foundation donations. Wales’ ubiquitous banner ad is now in its seventh year and the company is shooting for $16 million dollars to keep their impressive collaborative encyclopedia afloat ad free.

And while Wikipedia tested out different banners for the 2010 launch, none came close to the effectiveness (a 3% click through rate!) of the unintentionally hilarious image of Wikipedia founder Wales gazing at you intently. The image is so beloved that someone actually created a Google Chrome extension that allows you to take the Wales’ banner with you wherever you go online. And so we did.

You can download the extension here.

Thanks: Zorgloob

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WordPress.com Rolls Out “Top Authors” Stats With A Bonus

A couple weeks ago, we noted that Automattic was testing out a new Top Author stat area on the Site Stats page found on WordPress.com blogs. Today, they’ve rolled out the feature with a couple little bonuses.

First of all, the widget itself has been prettied-up quite a bit from the one we shared. You’ll now see author icons next to the author names. More importantly, you’ll see a plus sign, which, when clicked, presents a drop down that shows you exactly what stories by that author are brining in traffic on any given day. WordPress.com also removed the number of posts area, after that caused some confusion. “the top spot is not about who wrote the most posts, it’s about which author wrote the posts that got the most visits,” they note.

WordPress.com says that they liked the new icon and drop down so much, that they’ve also added it to the Referrers box as well. The result is a simple way to see things like which Twitter account is sending the most traffic your way. Pretty nifty.

WordPress.com says the stats upgrade is available for all blogs on WordPress.com and it will automatically appear if your blog has two or more authors with traffic on their posts. Automattic also notes that these features will be coming to the Stats plugin for self-hosted WordPress blogs shortly.

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Interactive Music Video Turns Song Into Coloring Book

Here’s something to keep you occupied this pre-holiday Monday morning: a new video from Brooklyn-based indie band Au Revoir Simone that functions as an interactive coloring book.

The video for “Knight of Wands” — off of the band’s third album, Still Night, Still Light — premiered today on a dedicated Flash website. The in-browser experience is quite similar to Arcade Fire’s “The Wilderness Downtown,” but doesn’t utilize HTML5 as that project did.

Once you click “Play,” you are taken to a coloring book page featuring band members Heather D’Angelo, Erika Forster and Annie Hart standing in what appears to be a haunted house. A palette of colors to the left allow you to fill in the world they inhabit, and, as you paint, a phantom flits through the frame, adding to the eerie atmosphere created by a song drenched in keyboards, dreamy vocals and periodic handclaps.

The video, directed by Eli Stonberg (who has worked with bands like Passion Pit and Nada Surf) and illustrated by Chris Sanchez is a creative effort that asks audience members to directly interact with the music and the world the band has spun via melody.

Videos like this — and those created by musicians like Arcade Fire and Andy Grammer — demonstrate how the oeuvre of the music video is changing as the web continues to become a destination for music and entertainment.

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Apple's Find My iPhone / iPad service now free, doesn't require MobileMe

We'd been sort of hoping Apple would just make MobileMe a completely free service, but it looks like we're taking baby steps instead: Find My iPhone / iPad is now free for iPhone 4, the iPad, and the fourth-gen iPod touch running iOS 4.2.1. As with the paid feature, you'll be able to locate your device on a map, lock it, display a message, play a sound, or remotely wipe your data from any browser or the updated iOS app, which should presumably go live sometime today along with iOS 4.2.1 itself. Like we said, it's a baby step, but hey -- we never say no to free.

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Netflix formally launches $7.99 streaming-only plan, bumps unlimited DVD plans by a buck or more

By Tim Stevens posted Nov 22nd 2010 8:44AM Well you had to know it was coming: the streaming-only plan Netflix unofficially rolled out last month is now being officially deployed. Thankfully the company opted to go with the lower of the two prices it was toying with, $7.99, which pits it squarely against Hulu Plus. However, the prices for all unlimited plans that include DVDs have jumped by at least one dollar, meaning you'll now be paying $9.99 for a one DVD at a time plan (though the $4.99, two DVDs a month offer will still give you a penny back from your Lincoln). So, it's a cheaper option for trailblazers who have abandoned physical media and a dark day for everyone else.

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The Daily: Murdoch's iPad newspaper is like 'The New York Post Goes to College'

We don't usually find our latest tech news in Women's Wear Daily yet the publication seems to have scooped Rupert Murdoch's plans for a tablet-only newspaper called The Daily -- news now seemingly confirmed by the New York Times. Scheduled for release early next year, The Daily is expected to cost 99 cents per week (about $4.25 per month) for an electronic paper published seven days a week by a 100-member strong newsroom staffed with "twentysomething" talent led by a former managing editor from the New York Post. According to the sources speaking to WWD, It'll be written with the "sensibilities" of a tabloid and the intelligence of a broadsheet focusing on national news. In other words, it's said to be like "The New York Post Goes to College." A beta is expected by Christmas before hitting the iPad "and other tablet devices" sometime in early 2011.

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Mobile Apps Track Your Weight, Body Fat and Sleep Patterns

Digifit has updated its mobile fitness apps for iOS to integrate with the Withings WiFi Body Scale and Zeo Personal Sleep Coach gadgets to provide users with a single dashboard to monitor their health.

Digifit users, who also own one or both of the third-party devices, will now be able to connect their accounts and use the Digifit dashboard to get a comprehensive look at their workouts, weight and sleep behaviors in a single view called the “Health Triad.”

The free Digifit mobile apps [iTunes link] already work to track a slew of metrics, including heart rate and calories burned, for cardio workouts, and can map runs and bike rides. The service is meant to combine the functions of multiple fitness devices — heart rate monitors and run trackers — into a single app experience. Users can purchase additional sensor hardware for more accurate tracking.

The Withings WiFi Body Scale is a next-gen scale that records body weight, lean and fat mass and calculates body mass index. The scale is already capable of auto-tweeting and updating Facebook. With support for the Digifit system, users can have the scale automatically share and upload their weight information to their Digifit dashboard.

The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach is an in-home system for tracking and analyzing sleep patterns, with online visualization tools that include a bedside display and wireless headband. This data can now also be shared with a user’s Digifit dashboard.

The enhanced Digifit apps offer users a sophisticated health monitoring system. Of course, with the holidays upon us, it’s likely a system most of us would prefer to use once we resolve to eat better, sleep more and workout harder.

Health and fitness apps are becoming more competitive and advanced in the ever-growing genre for mobile devices. Earlier this year, Nike released its Nike+ GPS app for runners and Runkeeper updated its app to support automatic Foursquare badges for real-world fitness accomplishments.

Image courtesy of Flickr, whoaitsaimz

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Facebook Tries To Silence Lamebook: Removes Its Page, Blocks Links And Likes

Another chapter in the Facebook vs. Lamebook, errmm, book: the social networking giant has confirmed to us that it has moved to diligently block all outgoing links to Lamebook.com, shut down the two-person company’s Facebook Page (previously at facebook.com/thelamebook), and blocks visitors of the funny site from ‘liking’ posts to boot.

For your background: Facebook wants the Austin startup to quit using the name Lamebook, deeming its activities under that name an “improper attempt to build a brand that trades off Facebook’s popularity and fame”, and filed a trademark infringement lawsuit last week.

Lamebook had previously filed for declaratory judgment on its non-infringement of Facebook’s trademark, saying it operates a parody website and as such is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Bill McGeveran, law professor at the University of Minnesota, is just one of many to believe Lamebook actually has a pretty strong case:

Without some lenience for parody, comment and so-called “nominative use,” it would become impossible even to refer to an iconic brand without using its name, thus infringing on trademark rights. Fortunately, when faced with these disputes, most courts now realize their role as protectors of speech.

And even Facebook doesn’t even try to stop use of the company’s trademark in a newspaper story about the company, or go after sites that track it (or, for that matter, in the highly fictionalized and rather negative account of its founding in The Social Network.)

But if Facebook won’t be prevailing in court, that doesn’t mean they can’t just try and proverbially choke Lamebook to death.

They’ve most certainly dealt a major blow to the two-person startup by actively discouraging Facebook users from posting links to their website and refraining them from liking posts. Removing Lamebook’s fan page is one thing, but it’s safe to assume their funny site used to get a fair amount of traffic from the Facebook site that it’s no longer getting now.

For a tiny startup that relies on those pageviews for income – it’s an ad-supported website – Facebook’s move could cost them dearly.

Lamebook, meanwhile, is actively soliciting donations from visitors for its ‘Legal Fund’. The site also put up a notice on top of its website, which reads:

Well, Facebook didn’t like us sticking up for ourselves, so they shut down our Fan Page, are preventing any users from “liking” us, and won’t even let you share URLs with your friends if they point to Lamebook. In light of this, be sure to follow us on Twitter so you get updated with the latest and funniest of the lame!

I got in touch with Facebook, and they confirmed that they’re actively blocking Lamebook links and likes. Here’s their official statement on the matter:

Our terms prohibit posting of material or other activities on Facebook that infringe the rights of others. We reserve the right to pull down any content we believe is infringing. We also specifically prohibit use of any Facebook or confusingly similar marks (See SRR Sec. 5.1, 5.2 & 5.6 http://www.facebook.com/terms.php)

To be continued, no doubt.

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HP Beats The Street; Q4 Revenue Up 8 Percent To $33.3 Billion

HP narrowly beat analyst expectations for Q4 earnings today, posting net revenue of $33.3 billion, up $2.5 billion or 8% from a year earlier. Non-GAAP diluted EPS was $1.33, up 17% from $1.14 in the prior-year period.  Analysts expected revenue of $32.75 billion and earnings of $1.27 a share.

For the quarter, non-GAAP operating profit was up 10% to $4.0 billion. For the 2010 fiscal year, net revenue came in at $126 billion, up 10% or $11.5 billion. The company said the yearly increase in revenue was spurred by  growth in the commercial PC Clients and Printers  segments of 20% and 22%, respectively, in the fourth quarter.

HP’s new CEO and President Léo Apotheker stated in a release: “HP proved once again that it is able to execute given its market strengths and technology leadership…I have seen firsthand that we have talented people who are focused on delivering value for our customers. Our market opportunity is vast, and I am confident that we will extend our leadership into the future.”

Enterprise Storage and Servers reported total revenue of $5.3 billion in the fourth quarter, up 25%; and Personal Systems Group (computers, devices) revenue increased 4% to $10.3 billion in the fourth quarter. The Software and Services group didn’t see much growth, with revenue rising by 1% and 0.4% respectively.

In terms of region, revenue was up 10% in the Americas to $15.1 billion. Revenue was up 6% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and up 8% in Asia Pacific to $12.4 billion and $5.8 billion, respectively. Revenue from outside of the United States in the fourth quarter accounted for 64% of total HP revenue, with revenue in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) increasing 12% while accounting for 10% of total HP revenue.

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Badgeville Investors Now Betting $2.5 Million That You’ll Want To Check In To Websites

TechCrunch Disrupt Audience Choice winner Badgeville announces a $2.5 million Series A round today in order to apply its badge-based game mechanics across the web.  Investors in the round include eBay COO Maynard Webb, Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, and senior executives from Paypal, Chegg, Shopping.com, Drugstore.com and Warner Music. 

Publishers who use Badgeville can set up an account, offer defined rewards and track visitor behavior with realtime analytics. Badgeville works for any company that has a community on its site: Anyone from gaming to education, to retail and more can use the service to reward people for checking into a site, taking tests or simply browsing through products. Virtually anything can correspond to a badge reward.

Since their launch at TechCrunch Disrupt, the startup has had over 1500 companies inquire for information and has signed up dozens of partners including Comcast Sports, Philly.com, The Next Web, Blackbook and us. Founders Kris Duggan and Wedge Martin expect over $1 million dollars in bookings in 2010 (within their first four months of launching) and ascribe the influx of interest in Badgeville to the current hybird trend of “social + gaming + loyalty + analytics for the web,” a space shared by OneTrueFan and Big Door.

Says Duggan, “Everybody realizes that they want what Foursquare and Farmville have. In the future, virtually every serious web brand will have techniques from social gaming to engage users. We’re the company to do that.”

The startup plans on using the financing to increase staffing, further product engineering and supporting its large scale clients. Duggan tells me they plan on expanding their Palo Alto offices from 10 employees to 20-30 in the next 12 months and are, like everybody else, hiring.

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Twitter’s Creative Director Talks Design, UX and Inspiration

In the web design community, Doug Bowman has distinguished himself both as an individual and as a part of big-name creative teams. Currently, he is Twitter’s creative director, a job he took after leaving Google last year.

This year, Twitter’s dramatic redesign was the talk of the web — the “new Twitter” is both beautiful and functional. Its addition of new features is perfectly balanced with its subtle aesthetic upgrades. Overall, the design team didn’t just make the product prettier, it made the user experience vastly more interesting, simple and pleasurable.

The new Twitter is a clear product of Bowman’s philosophy on web design:

“In a world where data bits flow abundantly, our minds have developed filters to sift through the overflow of useless and badly designed information. While design must appeal to our sense of aesthetic, it must not stand in the way of delivery, cause complications or introduce stumbling blocks.

“Rather, the presence of design should simplify and facilitate our everyday life, enable us to accomplish our tasks more effectively and help us enjoy them along the way.”

We asked Bowman to shed some light on a few subjects, including the redesign. After all, when your application is at scale and users are already accustomed to an experience, how do you change the interface gracefully and well?

“Know very well the reasons why the product needs a redesign, or if it does at all,” Bowman told us. “Understand that users are creatures of habit, and change is often hard to move beyond. Allow them time to try and shift over to a new design.

“However, don’t be afraid of taking substantial risk with a redesign if the product needs a substantial overhaul to improve the user experience,” he added. “Some redesigns are often appreciated more for what they eliminate than what they add.”

Bowman emphasized user experience above all in his notes to us. He’s not the kind of art-for-art’s-sake aesthetic snob who’d sacrifice a user’s needs for a designer’s wants.

“As designers, one of our ‘wants’ should always be to help satisfy user needs. [It] kind of goes with the job description when the user experience is so critical to a product’s success. Good designers understand and are attentive to what users need and want to accomplish,” Bowman explained. “Great designers realize that fulfilling those needs can happen in unique and unexpected ways.”

In addition to reimagining one of the modern web’s more popular applications, Bowman has also built an extraordinary design team at Twitter. Together, they’ve rolled out a string of successful mobile applications in addition to rebuilding Twitter.com.

In a market rife with talent, how do you build a design team that works?

“Look for creative folks who understand basic design principles and critical thinking over those who have sought out advanced skills in Photoshop or CSS,” Bowman advises.

“Hire designers that are more talented than you,” he added. “Encourage everyone on the team to share their work and think often. With a small amount of guidance, trust that they will create incredible experiences.”

Finally, we asked Bowman what most stimulates his creativity. He cited nature and architecture as inspiration, and after his focus on UX, we weren’t surprised to find that Bowman is also inspired by “constant cycles of user feedback.”

Image courtesy of Flickr, gorriti.

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New iPhone App Locates Products in Aisles at Stores

aisle411 is today launching its iPhone application for locating products in specific aisles and sections at retails stores. The application works at more than 600 stores in the U.S. and is meant to serve as a faster, more convenient way for shoppers to search and find items at stores.

Application users can type in product search queries or use the voice recognition technology, powered by Nuance, to search at participating stores. For each supported store, aisle411 also includes a comprehensive store map and store info, and UPC barcode scanning to pull up user-generated product reviews.

Generic product searches — double sided tape, for instance — will return search results that specify available types and brands. App users can then glance the section and aisle number for each result, select to map a product for navigational assistance or choose to add it to a shopping list.

Participating stores may also opt to include coupons and offers. The application surfaces Coupons.com offers available at stores, and highlights them in the offers portion of the app.

The service even includes a now ubiquitous checkin feature, so users can check in to stores, share their location with friends via TwitterTwitter and FacebookFacebook and earn badges and titles for their behaviors — think becoming the “Captain” of a particular store. These features seem a bit tired and unnecessary; if there’s a voice search or barcode scan, then there should be sufficient information for the service to automatically recognize that you’re at a particular venue.

aisle411 currently works at locations such as Home Depot, Schnucks Market drug stores and at Shop’n Save’s grocery chain. Obviously, the application is limited by the fact that its application only works at participating retailers.

The idea certainly has traction, apart from the copycat checkin features. We’ve already seen applications and services tackle location-based rewards and in-store barcode scans (Shopkick and Checkpoints come to mind), but solving the problem of locating products in stores feels fresh and will certainly be useful to lost shoppers.

aisle411 was founded in 2008. The company works with partner retailers to provide the in-store product search and offer experience; more retailers are said to be signing on with the startup on a daily basis. The aisle411 app is currently for iPhone only, but similar applications for AndroidAndroid and BlackBerry will be released in 2011.

Image courtesy of FlickrFlickr, Gavin St. Ours

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Internet TV Network Revision3 Wants You To Lean Back And Watch … On Your TV

Internet TV network Revision3 is today formally debuting a new TV-optimized website and bringing its full catalog of online content to multiple platforms including Google TV, Yahoo! Connected TV, Windows Media Center, AppleTV, Boxee and Roku.

Revision3, which was founded by Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson and David Prager, is porting its full line-up of more than 20 programs to the television screen, including shows like Tekzilla, Diggnation, AppJudgment, Dan 3.0 and Film Riot.

You can use either customized applications for the various Internet-enabled television sets or combos, or you can simply visit TV.revision3.com to watch the shows.

The application’s user interface was designed to make finding content simple, according to the company, as it sorts shows by name, category, featured content and most recent episodes. Viewers are also able to manually search for their favorite episodes and “lean back and watch” fresh content.

Will you be tuning in to the no-longer-strictly-Web-only Internet TV network from your TV?

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NAVTEQ Study: Worst Traffic In U.S. On New York City Freeways

NAVTEQ— the digital map, traffic and location data company— released a study today via its Traffic.com site and service naming New York City and its freeways as the most congested and traffic-delayed in North America.

Freeways in Montreal, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Boston and Toronto cracked the top ten on this dubious list as well. Following New York on NAVTEQ Traffic.com’s ranking of cities with the worst rush hour are: Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Atlanta, Houston and Denver.

This Thanksgiving holiday (Wednesday, November 24th to Sunday, November 28th) the American Automobile Association (AAA) and IHS Global Insight predict that the number of Americans traveling will increase 11.4 percent versus 2009, with approximately 42.2 million travelers overall and 39.7 million of them reaching their destination by vehicle.

Vehicles account for at least 25 percent of air-polluting emissions domestically, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports. Numerous studies have linked traffic and related emissions to health problems that range from childhood asthma to higher risk of sudden heart attacks for people living within 300 to 500 meters from a highway or major road most effected by traffic. According to the Health Effects Institute in Boston, 30-45% of people in large North American cities live within such zones.

Stop and start driving causes vehicles from diesel buses to typical family cars to emit more particles including black carbon and volatile organic compounds, scientists at Queensland University of Technology in Australia found. That’s one reason air quality declines around traffic-congested areas.

In New York, areas with the greatest traffic density suffer three times the concentration of the pollutant nitric oxide, and twice the concentration of nitrogen dioxide, compared to areas with the lowest traffic density, according to the 2010 New York City Community Air Survey.

Drivers who avoid the most congested routes, roads with lots of stop signs and traffic lights, and who drive during off-peak hours hopefully with carpoolers can curb their impact on air quality, and the overall amount of fuel or energy they consume while traveling.

From the NAVTEQ Traffic.com study:

Freeways with the Slowest Typical Rush Hour

1. New York City – Brooklyn Battery TUNL NB
2. New York City – Washington BRG EB
3. Montreal – AUT-15EB
4. Philadelphia – US-202 SB
5. Montreal – RTE-138 WB
6. New York City – Washington BRG WB
7. Los Angeles – 1-10EB
8. Boston – US-1 NB
9. Dallas – TX-366 EB
10. Toronto – Don Valley PKWY NB

Cities with the Worst Rush Hours

1. New York
2. Washington D.C.
3. San Francisco
4. Los Angeles
5. Philadelphia
6. Chicago
7. Dallas – Ft. Worth
8. Atlanta
9. Houston
10. Denver

Image via Ryan Vaarsi

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Dell Inspiron Duo and speaker dock up for pre-order at Microsoft Store now, no clue when they'll ship out

The Dell-Microsoft symbiotic relationship continues where it left off with the Venue Pro, as another highly desirable piece of hardware has been made available at a Microsoft Store ahead of Dell: the transforming Inspiron Duo and its JBL-powered speaker dock. That's actually in your favor this time, however, as you won't have to trek across the countryside to one of Microsoft's seven brick-and-mortar stores, but rather grab the $549 convertible at Microsoft's website, and you can even get $50 off the audio station's typical $99 price. That said, these are most definitely pre-orders we're dealing with here and there's no expected shipping date on the site, so it's hard to tell if you're actually securing yourself the first spot in that "first week of December" line. They won't charge you until it ships, though, so if you're not willing to wait for our full review to see if that slick spinning screen is up to snuff, now is probably the time.

[Thanks, Joe]

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This Morning’s Top 3 Stories in Tech and Mobile

Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

iOS 4.2 Brings Multitasking & Wireless Printing to iPad

The new version of Apple’s mobile platform, iOS 4.2, is available today for the iPad, iPhone & iPod touch. iPads received the most new features, including support for multitasking, wireless printing, app folders, a unified inbox and access to Game Center, among other things.

Apple also announced that its Find My iPhone application is now available to all users for free, sans a subscription to MobileMeMobileMe.

WikiLeaksWikileaks: Next Release Is 7x Size of Iraq War Logs

WikiLeaks tweeted that its next release (date TBA) will be seven times bigger than the size of the Iraq war logs, which are widely considered to be the biggest military leak in history.

eBay Releases All-in-One Buying, Selling & Scanning iPhone App

eBay has released version 2.0 of its primary Phone app, which enables users to buy and sell on eBay’s flagship auction site, as well as scan product barcodes for comparison shopping.

Further News

Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, DNY59

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Verizon launching LTE network in December 2010 (video)

Verizon's been talking details on LTE deployment for some time now, but even at CTIA earlier in the year, the carrier insisted that it would be the first half of 2011 before the next-gen network was active in the US of A. Now, it looks as if the engineers have been working triple-time in order to get Long Term Evolution live in the States under Big Red's branding, as a new VZW commercial (embedded after the break) has affirmed that the first LTE waves will go public here in December 2010. Yeah, next month. Granted, there's no information beyond the date, but at least we shouldn't have to ponder long which devices will be first out of the gate. Here's hoping Santa's wish list has room for one more thing. See more video at our hub!

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