In an effort to be Dropbox music, Mecanto launches affordable streaming and storage services

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

If you're a fan of cloud-based music boxes, this is a good time to be alive. Back in March, Amazon somewhat surprising beat Apple and Google storage and streaming music from their "Cloud drive" and "Cloud player". Google and Apple have since begun to cloud music victims (or their Beta), and all three continue to improve and evolve as time marches on.

As a lover of music, it's great to see cloud music storage and streaming services, move forward in tandem, even if we must all recognize that our own personal bookmark. Because, frankly, more competition in this space, the better. That is why you should pay attention to the new startup, which enters the stage left: Mecanto. Yes, today, a new service cloudy music includes Arena, promising Unlimited Music streaming and storage of the listeners around the world is not to put a dent in your wallet. (TC 1000 Mecanto offers readers free 6 months subscription. Huzzah! See below for more information.)

On the basis of the Tel Aviv Mecanto hitting scenes this week to support cloud music player and storage service, easy to set up and all the things the user wants from their trusty neighborhood music locker: unlimited storage and streaming, the ability to automatically sync your iTunes library and PC folders with your account (with multiple computers), global accessibility, playlist editing, video, easy overview and cross platform functionality. Also doesn't hurt that users can find Mecanto on the Internet or go mobile iOS, Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian.

MeCanto Mobile interface is very stylish and enables users to easily listen to the songs and albums or create playlists. Stream songs over 3 G or WiFi and users can listen to any song they want without having to worry about how much space the song took on a phone. Here's to you, clouds.

This sounds like a great start, right? Of course, but with names like Amazon, Google, Apple, Spotify and numerous other staring down Mecanto definitely has uphill climb ahead. In doing so, accessibility is a strong selling point for the service of Israeli music. Look at your competitors: Spotify unlimited "and" premium cost $ 60 per year and $ 120 per year, respectively, iCloud comes in at around $ 25 a year, Amazon Cloud drive and cloud player is worth at least $ 20 per year (unlimited storage may be limited time offer).

Google, on the other hand is currently free of charge, but there is little likelihood that it will stay that way for long. For comparison, at $ 20 per year, is an attractive alternative to large Mecanto players, especially as it offers worldwide access, cross platform integration, and instantly uploads — suite, which its competitors only offer to pieces.

In addition, users are free for the first time Mecanto month service at the end of which they can pay $ 20 for a whole year or breaking it down into $ 2 monthly. To start using, users can download a small application for desktop computers, which will then download and synchronize all the music automatically. Bing, Bada boom Bada boom probable cause. The best part: to accelerate the process of downloading Mecanto's, this means that users can access their music almost instantly, even before the download is complete. Students may obtain direct access to their music, or they can choose to upload your files to slower bandwidth savings without having to worry about delays.

Not wanting to be anti-social at the age of Facebook music service also offers a social function, including the possibility of adding a video to YouTube account and playback, as well as the ability to share these YouTube clips on Facebook and Twitter, Last.fm scrobbling tracks Exchange current track for social networking, bidirectional synchronization and intelligent categorization tracks. As for the support files? Mecanto works with MP3, M4A, WMA, OGG, FLAC and a big part of their language.

Mecanto in the so-called "three screens and a cloud" platform really is an excellent alternative to the big names in space, and a "Dropbox for music" is not an analogy unfair. Course design isn't quite up to par with some of the other, but its availability, worldwide access and cross platform functionality can simply give Mecanto feet, it has to be taken seriously in a crowded with familiar names space.

So far run raised $ 2 million in funding from private angels, but you can be sure that the startup will seek more cash as he begins to scale and rolls out around the world.

Israeli music locker is definitely worth a look, especially under the auspices of the monthly demo and the fact that the first 1000 readers to TechCrunch, which here will receive free testing within six months of service. I mean, who doesn't love music deal? Check this.

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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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