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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