Friday, November 16, 2012


CODA Automotive Dangles Free Home Charger To Customers
In an incentive to potential customers looking at an electric car, Los Angeles-based CODA Automotive said it will provide a free, home charger to customers in California. The company said California residents who purchase a new, 2012 CODA electric vehicle will receive a free, home GE WattStation Level 2 EV charger, plus installation by Mr. Electric. The company said the charger is worth approximately $2,000. CODA said the promotion runs only for a couple of weeks, through December 2nd.
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ArtKive Raises $500K
The Kive Co., the mobile applications developer behind ARTKIVE, an app which helps parents save their kids' artwork, and turn that art into photo books or keepsakes, has raised $500,000 in a funding round, according to the company. The funding came from local angels, as well as from Amplify. The firm, which is led by Jedd Gold, launched its app in September. The company's service and app solves the issue that parents have of trying to figure out what to do with their childrens' prolific artwork. (More info...)
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Hulu Highlights Video Games
Online video streaming site Hulu said Friday that it has launched a new section to highlight video game trailers, through its new Video Games hub on the site. The new hub shows HD trailers of games, game play videos, reviews, and more on releases. Hulu said the new section is available on PCs today, and will roll out to Hulu Plus enabled devices over the next few months.
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JibJab Powers Amazon Video Gift Cards
Los Angeles-based JibJab is powering a new line of video-based gift cards for ecommerce giant Amazon.com. Amazon.com announced its new Amazon Video Gift Cards Friday morning, letting useres create free, personalized cards using JibJab Starring You videos, which feature a photo of yourself, your friends, or family directly in the gift card video. Financial details of the win by JibJab were not announced. Amazon has rolled out dozens of videos, including gift cards for winter holidays, birthday, g (More info...)
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Laffster's Mock The Vote Hits Android
Mock The Vote, the mobile, political satire application developed by Venice-based Laffster, has just launch on Android, giving political news fans another platform to get the latest, humorous take on politics. Laffster, headed by Daniel Altman, has been applying algorithms to the world of digital content, surfacing the most interesting and timely political news from its partners, presented in a humorous fashion. The firm told users today in an email that the new Android app now has "20% more CIA (More info...)
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Wallaby Financial Debuts iPhone App
Wallaby Financial, the personal finance startup out of MuckerLab, is debuting a new, iPhone application today, which the firm says will help consumers make the best decision on which credit card to use. The free app helps users choose among their multiple credit cards, to figure out which ones to use to make the most of a transaction. Wallaby Financial is headed by Matthew Goldman, and is backed by FF Angel, WI Harper Group, Quotidian Ventures and Karlin Ventures. The app provides a function sim (More info...)
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SkinMedica Acquired By Allergan For $375M
Carlsbad-based SkinMedica, the developer of aesthetic medicine products, is being acquired by Irvine-based Allergan in a $350M deal, the two said today. Allergan said it will buy SkinMedica $350M up front, plus up to $25M based on future sales goals. The deal does not include the SkinMedica Colorescience aesthetic make-up line, which the two said will be spun out by SkinMedica into a new business. SkinMedica was venture backed by Apax Partners, Domain Associates, EuclidSR Partners, HealthCare Ve (More info...)
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Ten of Southern California's Top Software Companies
Southern California is often criticized for having too many startups which only revolve around brand, celebrity, ecommerce, and marketing, and not enough of the traditional, software-and-algorithm intensive startups you'd expect to see in Silicon Valley. However, that's not always the case. We've identified ten of the more technically interesting companies working on software in Southern California, using our unscientific, unproven, and undoubtedly biased informal polling. (We've undoubted (More info...)
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Sixty-four Southern California Firms On Technology Fast 500
Earlier this week, Deloitte released its latest list of the top 500 growing technology companies, in its 2012 Technology Fast 500 list. A very healthy list of Southern California companies made the list, with a total of 64 companies in the region ranked in the list. The full list follows: 13 EdgeCast Networks 21406% Santa Monica Alex Kazerani 15 Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 18798% San Diego Pedro Lichtinger 22 Phone Power 7642% Winnetka Ari Ramezani 23 TeleSign Corporation Software (More info...)
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Friday Tech Video Roundup for November 16th, 2012
Some of the highlights from this week from socalTECH's video section, where we're currently featuring community videos from and about local startups: Peter Pham of Science Inc. with Mario Andretti Peter Pham, of Los Angeles technology studio/incubator Science Inc., apparently likes not just his startups to move fast, but also his cars. Introducing the PublishThis Content Cloud An explanation of PublishThis and its content curation software. Phone Halo's WalletTrackr pitch video Santa (More info...)
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CODA Energy Ties With Energy Optimization Firm
Los Angles-based CODA Energy, the offshoot of CODA Automotive developing battery-based energy storage systems, said today that it has inked a deal with Stem, a provider of energy optimization services. CODA said that its battery systems are being deployed as part of a solution to help manage energy usage and electric power at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel and the InterContinental San Francisco Hotel. CODA said its lithium-ion batteries--based on the same battery technology being used i (More info...)
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Crackle Debuts PlayStation 3 App
Culver City-based Crackle, the online video streaming site owned by Sony, said today that it has debuted a new, Playstation 3 application, which lets users of that device gain access to its movies, television series, and original programming. Crackle offers up a selection of Sony's movies and TV shows on a rotating basis, with such titles as District 9, Rescue Me, Seinfeld, and more. The firm said it has over 200 films and 1,000 television episodes available to watch for free. Crackle also offer (More info...)
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Qualcomm Buys EPOS
San Diego-based Qualcomm Technologies, which is a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, announced today that it has acquired an Israeli firm, EPOS Development, Ltd.. Financial terms of the asset buy was not announced. EPOS Development Ltd. was a developer of ultrasound-based input technology for pen, stylus, and gesture recognition, and was based in Israel. EPOS was venture backed by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Walden Israel Venture Capital and Tel-Ad. Qualcomm said it will use the technolo (More info...)
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Call Of Duty: Black Ops II Sells $500M In First 24 Hours
Santa Monica-based Activision Publishing is estimating a sell-through of more than $500M in the first 24 hours of launching Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The newest Call of Duty title went on sale on November 13th. The company said the numbers came via Chart-Track, retail customer sell-through information and internal company estimates. The firm said it believes that the launch will be the biggest entertainment launch of the year, given those estimates.
posted on Friday, November 16, 2012(Full story)