Thursday, September 29, 2011


SpaceX Details Plans For Reusable Rocket
Hawthorne-based SpaceX is planning to build a fully reuable, orbital booster, which the firm says will be able to be returned to earth for reuse, CEO Elon Musk said at a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. According to Musk, the firm is looking to allow the firm's rockets to return to earth under rocket power, so that they can be easily reused. With the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet retired, SpaceX is hoping that NASA will turn to the company for not only resupply trips to the Inter (More info...)
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Geni.com Links with Archives.com, GenealogyBank.com
West Hollywood-based Geni, the online family tree and family history site started by ex-PayPal vet David Sacks, said Thursday afternoon that it has linked its service with historical documents from sites Archives.com and GenealogyBank.com. Geni said it has made documents from the two sites available via links within those services. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Geni also said it hopes to add additional links to other services in the future. Users of Geni still need to have ac (More info...)
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Soon-Shiong Endows Chair At USC Viterbi
Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire founder of Abraxis Bioscience, has made a "multi-million" dollar donation to the University of Southern California, to endow a new chair at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. According to USC, the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation, funded by Soon-Shiong and his wife, Michele B. Chan, will fund a professor at the intersection of engineering and medicine, specifically focused on computer science, mobile vision, or robotics. Exact amount of the endowment wa (More info...)
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Specific Media Pares Staff As It Digests MySpace
Irvine-based Specific Media has cut a small amount of its staff, as it continues to absorb its buy of Los Angeles-based MySpace. Specific Media would not confirm the exact extent of its cuts, but reports say the cuts were less than 8 percent of the firm. In a statement, the company said it has identified "sales and operating synergies that exist between itself and Myspace" and is "consolidating forces" to align the workforce with the direction it is headed. Despite the cuts--which were expected (More info...)
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SmartSound Extends Online Soundtrack Service
Northridge-based SmartSound Software, which develops an online software as well as PC-based software for creating royalty free soundtracks, said earlier this week that it has extended its service to allow users to customize and create tracks indefinitely, once purchased from the company. The firm said its "Lifetime Customization" allows users to use its music library to customize length, arrangement, and instrument mix for any production, once they've signed up and purchased access to a music co (More info...)
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Roambi Ties with Business Intelligence Software
San Diego-based MellMo, the developer of the Roambi mobile business reporting application, has tied with an Italian developer of business intelligence software, the company said today. MeLLmo and Tagetik, and Italian software firm, said the two have launched Roambi for Tagetik, part of a strategic relationship which gives Tagetik's customers access to data on their iPhone or iPad. Tageik provides business intelligence, performance management, risk and compliance, and governance software for ente (More info...)
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ContentGuard Acquired By Pendrell
El Segundo-based ContentGuard, which develops and owns a large portfolio of patents in the digital rights management (DRM) space, has been acquired by publicly held Pendrell Corporation. According to Pendrell, it is paying $90.1M in cash to acquire ContentGuard, which owns over 260 patents and 160 pending patent applications around digital rights management (DRM). ContentGuard lists Microsoft Corp., Thomson, and Time Warner as investors; Pendrell said that Time Warner will own 9.9 percent of Con (More info...)
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Viddy Powers Snoop Dogg iPhone App
Venice-based Viddy, the mobile application developer founded by JJ Aguhob and Brett O'Brien, is powering a new social video app from Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg said this morning that he has launched a new, mobile video app called Snoop Pack on Viddy, which will allow fans to add Snoop-inspired content, special effects, and soundtrack to their own video shots on iPhone. Financial details of the win for Viddy were not disclosed. Snoop Pack, the new iPhone app, is expected to be available sometime thi (More info...)
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Interview with Bong Koh, LifeCrowd
Earlier this month, Los Angeles-based LifeCrowd (www.lifecrowd.com) unveiled its service to help connect people with real life activities. The firm is initially focusing on the Los Angeles market, and connecting people with fun, interesting classes, activities, and more in the local area. The company was founded by Bong Koh, a former EIR at Prism VentureWorks and venture capitalist at Advanced Technology Ventures; he also co-founded ibeatyou. We caught up with Bong to hear more about his new st (More info...)
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SweetLabs Snags $13M
San Diego-based SweetLabs, the company headed by Darrius Thompson, and which runs both the OpenCandy advertising network and the desktop Pokki app platform, said today that it has raised $13M in a Series C funding round. The round was led by Intel Capital, and also included prior investors Google Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners. According to the company, the new funding goes towards growing Pokki, the desktop app platform it launched in June. Pokki allows developers to create desktop apps (More info...)
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Illumina Launches Genomic Chip Aimed At Cattle
San Diego-based Illumina, the developer of gene sequencing and other life sciences tools, said today that it has launched a product aimed at genotyping dairy cattle. Illumina said its new BovineLD (low density) BeadChip can be used for genomic selection, parentage, and traceability of cattle. The dairy industry has been using DNA sequencing to better select cattle for milk production, for breeding, and other purposes. Scientists first completed gene sequencing of the cow in 2009, the first lives (More info...)
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Local.com Trumpets School, Nonprofit Donations
Irvine-based Local.com is trumpeting today that it has donated more than $500,000 to schools and non-profits, via its Spreebird daily deals business. According to Local.com, its Spreebird daily deals service lets customers direct 10 percent of net proceeds for each deal to schools or non-profits of their choice, and so far has benefited more than 700 local schools and nonprofits. Local.com launched Spreebird in May.
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