Friday, November 2, 2012Stacking Up Southern California's Cheap/Free 4G Wireless Providers
A number of services have emerged in Southern California in the last few months, offering up free, or very inexpensive, 4G wireless connections. All of the providers are leveraging the 4G wireless network of Clearwire, the 4G wireless firm closely linked to Sprint, and most of those firms are looking to provide very fast, 4G wireless service for lots less than typically charged by cell phone carriers for access. We've stacked up three of the services below for comparison.
Free (More info...)
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Boingo Extends VPN Support To Windows, MacBoingo Wireless, the Wi-Fi network operator, said Friday that it has added virtual private network (VPN) support to the Mac and Windows version of its Wi-Finder app. The new feature helps users protect themselves from possible security issues when using wireless networks. Boingo's VPN features have been available in the company's iOS applications since this summer. Virtual private networks are used to encrypt data being transmitted over wireless and other networks. Boingo said VPN support is fre (More info...)
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Friday Tech Video Roundup for Southern California for November 2, 2012Some of the highlights from this week from socalTECH's video section, where we're currently featuring community videos from and about local startups:
Perfect Market's Gangnam Style Halloween
The folks over at Perfect Market, one of the companies at Idealab, look to be addicted to the whole idea of Gangnam Style parody videos -- this one from Idealab's annual Halloween costume contest.
Pitch video for Chewse
All about startup Chewse, one of the Los Angeles startups to join th (More info...)
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Nanoogo Gets Funding To Spur Creativity In KidsNanoogo, an online service focused on helping encourage creativity in kids, has scored a round of angel funding from the Tech Coast Angels, according to a report today from the group. Size and timing of the round was not announced. Nanoogo operates an online website which lets kids share their talents--photos, drawings, and creations--online in a social forum. The firm was one of a number, previously unannounced investments by the Tech Coast Angels. Nanoogo has been working with K5 Launch, the b (More info...)
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Tech Coast Angels Top Angel Group Investments In First HalfThe Tech Coast Angels was the most active group in the first half of the year, in terms of investments, the group said Friday, citing a the HALO Report from Silicon Valley Bank, Angel Resource Institute and CB Insights. The Tech Coast Angels also released new figures on its investment activity, saying that for the first three quarters of 2012, it invested in 23 deals, worth approximately $5M in direct TCA investment. Those deals included investments in such firms as
Garden Organics, SignNow, A (More info...)
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How Enervee Is Making Shopping For Products Energy Smart, with Matthias Kurwig
Are you someone who'd like to save money, energy, and maybe the environment while shopping for your new television, appliance, or other electronic product? If so, how do you figure out what the better choice is when you're making those purchase decisions? In a bid to try to make it easier for consumers to figure that out, Enervee (www.enervee.com) recently rolled out a new tool to provide an "Enervee Score" to help rate products on their energy efficiency and cost--and is now trying to get man (More info...)
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Lowercase Capital Boots Up New LA Investment FundAnother, Silicon Valley investor--Chris Sacca--has his eyes on investments in Los Angeles, saying that his super angel fund, Lowercase Capital, has just hired a full time director in Los Angeles to make investments in local startups. The news came at a PandoDaily event Thursday evening. Sacca's apparently has only one Southern California investment so far, an investment earlier this year in Big Frame. Sacca was previously Head of Special Iniviatives at Google, before he became a very active ange (More info...)
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International Rectifier To Shut El Segundo Plant In MarchEl Segundo-based International Rectifier, a manufacturer of analog, digital, and mixed signal ICs, said it expects to close its El Segundo based fabrication facility by the end of March, 2013. International Rectifier had announced the move in August. IR is also downsizing its Newport, Wales fabrication facility. International Rectifier said the cuts are expected to save it approximately $40M a year, when completed. International Rectifier did not say how many employees are being cut in the move.
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United Online: FTD Split Expected By August 2013Woodland Hills-based United Online, the hybrid Internet Service Provider and flower delivery service (via FTD), reported yesterday in its quarterly results that it now expects to spin off FTD as an independent, publicly traded company by August of 2013. United Online also said it is looking at "strategic alternatives" for its other businesses. United Online had said in August that it was looking to split the two businesses. United Online owns Memory Lane, Classmates, MyPoints, NetZero, and Juno.
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