iTunes rival radio launches gift cards available online and on target

Streaming music radio service from Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, is today launches two new musical gift options – physical gift cards and online loans. Consumers will have the opportunity to buy a virtual gift card options at $ 10, $ 25, $ 50 and $ 100 values or user-selected amount. In the meantime, the physical card in the value of $ 10 and $ 25 will be sold in more than 600 Target retail stores here in the United States.

Gift card radio is flexible in that it did not specify how the money should be used. The recipient can choose to use it towards their monthly subscription offline music or with recently announced unlimited family plan radios.

Radio vs. iTunes-"rent" versus "native"

Gift cards are for the first time the radio is currently sold in retail stores in the United States. Although they will be sold along with the top competitor to iTunes, two services are actually quite different. iTunes payment you music that you upload, which can then be saved and synced to your Apple devices. Radio, instead, provides streaming access to all the music in its catalog of nearly 11 million songs for a monthly fee. In other words from iTunes you own you buy music, but with a radio, for the most part, you rent it.

As Apple's upcoming iTunes match radio also uses a tool that searches your local library (in iTunes or Windows Media Player) look for the names of the artists, albums and songs that are already available in its catalog. With radio in the monthly fee, but Apple will charge $ 25/year to do the same. However, Apple will also update the tracks for high-quality, DRM-format when you run your game.

In addition, users can purchase select the tracks for offline listening if desired – the feature that is on a par with traditional iTunes offer. Often this is due to the music labels and/or rights holders ' restrictions on streaming.

New radio gift cards are available in the trust now or on the radio on the Web site www.rdio.com/gift.

Radio is an unlimited, on-demand social music service that allows subscribers to listen to music on the Web and mobile devices. Radio distinguishes itself for its social design that emulates ...

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Taboola raises $ 9 million power recommendations of online video

Jason Kincaid is currently working as a writer at TechCrunch. He grew up in Danville, California and later moved to Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, where he studied biology with a minor in "society and genetics". You can contact him at jkincaidtc@gmail.com (it has other addresses too, so don't worry if you have another). ? Read More

Taboola, a service that supports many video recommendation widgets, you will find on the Internet, has raised, 9 million series b round of financing. Round led by Crescent point, which is based in New York and Asia, as well as Evergreen VC, who participated in previous rounds.

This round brings total financing of Taboola to 15 million dollars (she had previously raised $ 4.5 million round in November 2008, and 1.5 million round in November 2007).

Taboola gives publishers a turnkey product for consideration and for recommendation of any video platform, they use (integrated with Brightcove, Ooyala & other services). It is actually easier said than done — surfacing related videos is hard enough and then there's the question of assessing whether they people really want to watch the video. Taboola is in and he landed a lot of notable clients, including the New York Times, USA Today, CNN and Bloomberg.

Service makes extensive analytics on the performance of each video, creating the scores for each called ' EngageRank ' (he is also trying to adapt the recommendations for each user).  And this often leads to more clicks, the company said the disks as in 2.5 times more video, watch at Bloomberg.

In addition to financing, the company announced a new milestone: now generates recommendations 250 million per day throughout its publisher partner sites.

Taboola's mission is to organize collections in the world of online video and convert video discovery experience in a simple and pleasant. Taboola is a supplier in the world ...

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Blog Fukushima robot operator removed – Online steps

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He wrote for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts, it would like you to read: the perils of externalization of knowledge | Generation I | Surveillant society | Select two | Frame war | Custom manifest | Our great sin his personal ????-coldewey.cc. ? Read More

An anonymous blogger known only as s.h. posting detailed descriptions of the daily efforts of response based on robot disaster at Fukushima. The blog includes technical details and personal anecdotes, but nothing sensitive to national security. However, in early July, the blog was discontinued and later deleted altogether. S.H. uploaded to YouTube videos have been made private. The origin of this clean up is not known, although of course it is understandable that bosses believed blog too revealing and asked that s.h. would accept him.

Something cannot be removed from the Internet without anyone noticing, however, particularly a blog like this, full of interesting and timely information related to efforts to curb the ongoing reactor. So when he disappeared, IEEE Spectrum undertook not only to keep the cached version of the blog, but to translate it and republish it. This is a powerful demonstration of the durability of Internet media-and interesting to read in its own right.

Blog is a combination of technical reviews and a normal human aspect of this work. Here are a few excerpts to give you a taste (format mine to save space):

Today, together with the battery charging robots, it was my turn to teach. I have them a little bit yesterday, though. Training takes place at low radiation outdoor area, but we wear full radiation protection clothes and accoutrements, detract from my thinking abilities. I usually not good thinking (LOL). The training is designed to replicate as closely as possible the actual task. At first I tried to open a heavy steel door (with a round knob). They said that I was the first person to successfully opening the door with a handle, actually.

Today we went and used two PackBots are to measure levels of radiation on the ground floor of the nuclear reactor in no. 3, the building where clean Warrior (disinfection) yesterday.
As a result of radiation levels decreased an average of about 10%.
If you're just looking at the results of the measurements they still look pretty high, but on the other hand, if you only look at the difference [in some areas], you get the sense that it was very effective.
There are places where the rate decreased to a maximum of 80 mph.

The first one who got up to go to the bathroom, Mr. S, said: "Hey, there's someone here. Who is this? "so I got to see and there was someone sleeping on tatami floor ... I looked at his face and don't recognize it. I woke up it asks, "who are you? You are in the right room? "he was kind of confused as well.
“? ? ?”
"What room it?" he said sleepily.
He slightly smelled alcohol, so he probably got drunk and slept in a wrong number.

You get the idea. There are photos of the operating environment, robots and so forth. All in all recording valuable recovery and cleanup efforts around the reactor. One commenter in IEEE, who works with the same robots already mentioned, he found some useful information from a shortened incomplete translation! Although I can understand that such a thing must also be distributed as part of the official operator environment (reports and such), this blog was clearly non-destructive way for unofficial information.

There were also selected pictures and videos:

Blog disappeared in July and still nobody commented. It is interesting to note that this does not mean whether it was closed voluntarily or under pressure from s.h. leaders. The fact that because it's worth something to someone, the deletion of this content was in their hands.

It is a form of Internet archaeology. In fact the site with the same name was formed to consolidate goldmine kitsch, Geocities. And although it's a bit of a lark, the principle applies equally to more serious content, as S.H. in the blog. Content controls disappear from the Internet is usually pretty about it. Truly sensitive information like Wikileaks or hackers Black Hat, it is virtually impossible to completely eliminate.

What is the endgame here? Polarization. If official government programs have to worry about their employees ' personal blogs, they just may prohibit them from having them at all. On the other hand to satisfy the thirst for information in real time and "transparency", will have a more formal channels for such data must be created. Will closely regulate these channels? Yes. They will identify and wonder how blogs like sh? # They will be better than what we were five years ago? Perhaps. There will always be a demand for deep secret anonymous blogs etc, but the methods to suppress and methods for creating, in a constant arms race. Sometimes you can get it from the tap, but sometimes you just have to get it, as it was bottled.

At the same time, if you're at all interested in cleanup efforts, or practical Robotics in General, check the record of the IEEE. If you speak Japanese, you can see some of the posts, mirrored here, and Google cache is still partially intact.

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Textbook Rental giant Chegg HTML5 now offers digital books; Buys online learning student services of Fortune

Leena Rao is currently working as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school of the Medill School of journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007 she helped lead efforts for advocacy and community relationships Congressman Carloyn Maloney in New York. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 where it was ... ? Read More

As college students in the country beginning section back to dormitories and purchase their books per semester, textbooks car rental giant Chegg makes major waves in space with a number of new announcements. Firstly, Chegg finally going digital, and will steadily rolling e tutorials on it's platform to provide millions of print books and textbooks for students by the end of the year. Secondly Chegg has partnered with a number of publishers (including four of the five leading educational publishers) to propose to his students, such as Cengage Learning, Elsevier, f.a. Davis, Macmillan, Mcfarland, McGraw-Hill, Oxford University Press, Rowman Littlefield &, Taylor and Francis and Wiley e-books.

Chegg's background was founded in 2007 and became the largest giant Rent textbooks for students. In fact, millions of students through 7000 campuses use Chegg in rent. But in space, with a number of other competitors, such as CampusBookRentals and BookRenter, eCampus and others; The company has expanded its strategy beyond just rent to compete in space.

During the past year, acquired the Chegg CourseRank and Cramster, which help students to select courses and learn from them. Notehall services guide also picked up a study the company recently.

The company just announced that it has acquired a Fortune online guide marketplace for those who need help, or help others with homework. Student destiny, which was founded in 2005, allows students to ask questions or post tutorials on a wide range of issues. Students may submit a question, which is then sent to the network of student Fortune experts, which in turn writes tutorial which helps answer the question for a fee. Students can also serve as experts, to earn money for writing textbooks. The service is already used by more than 300 000 students.

Director Dan Rosensweig said simply – if the Facebook for your social graph, and LinkedIn for your professional graph, Chegg wants to be a centralized platform for the chart. It basically turns into a one-stop-shop (the site was also modified in the light of this new strategy) for students to search for educational resources and services, ranging from tutorials, tips, to commemorate the adoption. As explains Rosensweig, "we want students to use Chegg 300 days a year rather than before each semester.

Of course we all know, digital textbooks are the future of large and small companies throwing their hats into the ring. Amazon now offering digital books to Kindle. And Kno (which was actually founded by Osman Rashid, Chegg co-founder) also plays in space, as a hint. But one thing that Chegg in his favour to millions of students who already know the brand as textbook Rental giant.

With the digital book, offering students can download HTML5 formatted, browser based e-textbooks that may be available on any device, including the iPad. Each book will come with one-click theme navigation and include the ability to select, take notes and search directly in the workbook. Besides offering e tutorial will include the tool read in standby mode ", where students can access their textbooks online while they wait for their printed textbook to arrive. This is a very useful feature for those who wait until the last minute to order textbooks (I know that I did back in college and grad school). You can also rent or buy e-books.

Rosensweig said that the release of digital versions of textbooks will be a gradual process and already have tens of thousands of digital books on the site. At the end of the year, the goal is to make the digital book, offering one of our two search on the site. And he adds that he is a priority for the Chegg to offer digital versions of popular books that people want (i.e. necessary textbooks).

Clearly Rosensweig has an ambitious plan to Chegg, and obviously, telling him that he is very optimistic that the company will be the go-to educational resources and a platform for students and beyond. Income, according to our calculations in January was about $ 150 million, and probably this number has grown since then. Rosensweig confirms that the income is growing nicely, "especially now, when the company added new revenue streams with daily transactions and through premium services company acquired technologies. In fact, he said that all the channels available has increased.

Beyond just income there are these rumors of planned IPO to Chegg. Rosensweig said this public offering: if it makes sense, we will consider it. Right now, we are witnessing a very rapid growth and a good amount of funding. Chegg raises $ 219 million to date, most recently Adding $ 75 million in its coffers last fall.

I have a feeling that we will see more aggressive movies from Chegg in the near future.

Chegg, online textbook rental company, was inspired by Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra frustration with the policies and procedures of their own University Bookstore. Osman and Aayush knew ...

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DuoDater wants to make online dating more social and less uncomfortable (offers here)

RIP Empson-writer at TechCrunch. He did not find friends here, he is here to win and you don't forget it. You can contact him at rip [at] techcrunch [dot] com ? more

Last month, Nick Paumgarten penned a lengthy article for The New Yorker detailing the growth of online dating and the impact it had on Web culture. Among other things Paumgarten implies some eye-opening statistics on the industry, including the fact that paid dating sites have become collectively, billion-dollar industry that "one of the six new marriages is the result of meetings on Internet dating site", and that online dating is now the third most common way for people to meet.

While most early blush (or stamp) around using an online platform for continuing relations wear, some friction, which has always been there still exist: from awkwardness in online networks, the potential risk of meeting eStranger, relying on algorithms to find your "compliant", etc. and more ironic for the interaction between intermediaries, most online dating sites to connect users with new people, while remaining detached from their actual social life. As Paumgarten, online dating is still remains inherently isolated.

Michael wig and Andrew Flachner, founders of the new dating site called DuoDater, agree that there are still some very fundamental problems with the current approaches to online dating (and, well, dating in General). The creation of an online dating profile can be difficult; It's hard to find the correct thing to say about yourself that will help site, either algorithmically or not, will help to pick the right person said the co-sponsors. Not to mention the facts that messaging stranger may be somewhat arduous process, and meet them in person without much background, awkward and sometimes unsafe.

Thus, the San Francisco startup offers a platform that aims to be a bit more social and less intimidating, that model championed by current dating sites: double date. DuoDater is aimed at men and women in their 20s and 30s who want to communicate and meet new people with the co-pilot. The co-founders, think that by allowing users to have a friend with their parties on the date, the interaction may be more natural and (we hope) a less awkward way to communicate and make friends.

DuoDater also built in such a way as to make a dating profile less nerve-racking process. The site offers "profile", the Duo only requires users to write a few sentences about myself individually, to the main attraction is included for creating joint description of steam daters can work together to fill. Flachner said that, so far, DuoDater in users find this less problematic and easy approach to dating profiles.

The founders also think their model provides a higher level of accountability than is generally characteristic of Individual dating, as users are less inclined to use a trick photo corners and exaggerated or romanticized descriptions of when they know, a close friend will see it and can call them on it.

DuoDater also adds a "featured Topic" idea, so new users can get up and running more easily and get out there and test the model.

When I asked whether they had considered the founders dating option group, they said that their market research and due diligence have shown that users prefer double dating with the latter because it still provides a level of intimacy that makes the experience feel like a real date, not the packages (PA) with handle, social gathering.

The founders said that, although there are several successful group, dating sites, profile group to take attention away from individuals and organizations access to a large group of people can be a hassle is that many are familiar with.

Of course the inherent risk to DuoDater in the model is one of the major players in the online dating space, like Match.com, PlentyOfFish and eHarmony, OK Cupid, you can create your own double-dating service and quickly have run to beat in terms of user base. But Flachner said that he thinks DuoDater is well positioned as an alternative, because it focuses on the casual atmosphere of double dating and centered around the events and experiences, instead of relying on algorithmic models (potentially less "human" approach) to connect to specific people.

DuoDater offers an interesting spin on traditional dating model and, indeed, it is surprising that this model is not something that is done on a large scale. Of course, this may be justified; without a paid model this is hard to learn to make money and double dating organically bring their own problems. DuoDater is currently free to use, and start the initialization of at this point, it will draw on its beta version to test the waters of whether this approach truly viable and scalable. Fee-based premium service may be at its future road map, too.

For readers who want to do some early test double dating platform click over to DuoDater.com and enter code "techcrunch" invite for access.

Let us know what you think.

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The useless wants to be your Go-To online resource for Outdoor Gear (and give you cash back)

RIP Empson-writer at TechCrunch. He did not find friends here, he is here to win and you don't forget it. You can contact him at rip [at] techcrunch [dot] com ? more

For outdoor inclined, there are hundreds of places to make the online purchase of equipment and clothing. Outdoorsmen and women can just site their favorite brand, whether REI, backcountry, Moosejaw or Patagonia, but there's really not much in the way of aggregating in outdoor retailers. (Although there are European sites such as GearZone.) As comparison shopping, loyalty discounts and coupon sites removed in niche verticals, naturally, the outdoor industry find their way into the mix.

Active startup junkie, founded in 2009 that again this week, aims to be a niche resource, which brings together the largest brands in outdoor gear and clothing industry and allows users to share their opinions on these retailers and get cash back for shopping.

The active addict cooperates with more than 100 branches, including those mentioned above, to create a competitive market for retail sale, which will vie for the biggest names new clients based on how much cash back they could earn by using Active useless, which, given the price of a new pair of skis may be of interest to fans of the cash-strapped outdoors.

The active addict is essentially a type of Ebates model for industry cash back open, in which users can browse through the site's database of over 80 000 items to compare prices from retailers by clicking on the site of the seller to buy the product, earning cash for every purchase. (ShopStyle encounters on the open market of Ebates).

Every 3 months, active useless cashes out of the user account created, after which he will recharge account at Paypal or donate the money back in one of the non-profit partners, startups, such as the Nature Conservancy.

However, the goal here is not just to create clean coupon or deal site, copy and paste of Ebates or fat wallet model, says founder and CEO Kevin Mcinerney, but to create a full-featured community in the world of sport outdoor action. The active addict not only allows users to compare prices of equipment from the outdoor brands and make purchases, but also offers content on adventure, action sports news, original videos, as well as reviews of gear from writers and users of the site.

In the near future, actively useless plans to roll out of the remuneration system, a la Gogobot or Consmr, where users would be incentivized to write detailed, in-depth reviews of products and equipment. More reviews of users and the more they are active on the site, they will receive badges and awards, as well as discounts and deals from its launch retail partners. The site also has "social wall" where users can keep tabs on their friends buy and browse and publish recommendations or suggestions for gear.

In its current form active useless is positioning itself as affiliate marketing platform for open brands, drive traffic to Web sites of these brands and, through partnerships, taking a cut of income from sales and marketing efforts. Although brands in all industries using affiliate marketing through the rewards program, loyalty, comparison shopping and all third party strategy for some time, the user is often unaware of such partnerships, and how to compare or cash back site (both active useless) profit from this relationship.

McIerney said that he wants active useless as far as possible be in these forms transparent and instruct the users of the site of the Commission, which it receives from its retail partners, including offering lionshare those profits for their users.

"In the end, as this user, and because it's their cookie we hunt, we want our customers experience the upside of these relations, McInerney said. "We want our customers to trust us, and we believe that transparency and benefit sharing is a good way to do this."

The active addict currently raised $ 150 K in Angel funding and expects further investment as it moves forward with its awards program.

For more check out the video below and let us know what you think. As an active useless better meet the needs of users and become the go-to resource for niche industry outside?

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