Friday, February 1, 2013Two Southern California Technology Researchers Get White House HonorsTwo, Southern California researchers were awarded the nation's top honor for their contributions to science and technology Friday, as President Obama awarded twelve researchers the National Medal of Science, and eleven inventors with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a ceremony at the White House. Dr. Frances Arnold, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and Dr. Solomon Golomb of the USC Viterbi School (More info...)
posted on Friday, February 1, 2013(Full story)
Activision Offering $1M Prize In Call of Duty ChampionshipWho would have thought that playing video games could be so lucrative? Activision said Friday that it has launched a new Call of Duty gaming competition, which will feature a $1 million prize, for the top player of Call of Duty: Black Ops II on the Xbox 360. Activision said that the Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox, will take place in April in Hollywood, awarding the top team a $1 million tournament prize. The competition said that any player can register to compete in the competitio (More info...)
posted on Friday, February 1, 2013(Full story)
LA's Innovators Get Spotlight, But Investors CautiousThe Los Angeles innovation economy is alive, well, and looks to be getting widespread recognition--finally--beyond just local high tech investors and executives, based on the turnout at an event Wednesday held by CSQ, which publishes a quarterly magazine focused on different industries (philanthropy, sports, entertainment, technology) focused on Los Angeles and Ventura County. The magazine turned its attention this month towards the Los Angeles innovation and technology economy in a section gues (More info...)
posted on Friday, February 1, 2013(Full story)
Gravity Debuts Content Personalization APISanta Monica-based Gravity, the developer of real-time personalization software headed by former MySpace COO Amit Kapur, is making a big push today with the launch of a new set of free APIs for publishers. The firm's tools allow web publishers to recommend content to users, while also inserting "sponsored stories" in those recommendations from advertisers. Gravity is backed by GRP Partners, Redpoint Ventures and August Capital, having most recently raise d$10.6M in a Series B funding round in O (More info...)
posted on Friday, February 1, 2013(Full story)
Ellie Jumps Into Activewear With $2M In FundingScience, Inc., the startup incubator headed by Mike Jones, has just tossed its ring into the another e-commerce category: women's activewear. Science just launched Ellie, a site which offers up clothing for activewear for women, via subscription. The firm said this morning that it has raised $2M in a funding round from Trinity Ventures, Rustic Canyon Partners, and Blumberg Capital. The area of women's fitness fashions seems to be a popular one for Los Angeles startups; just earlier this week, Ca (More info...)
posted on Friday, February 1, 2013 (More)(Full story)
Amazon Greenlights Five Children's ShowsAmazon Studios, the media and production arm of Amazon.com, said Thursday that it has greenlighted five children's shows as part of its Amazon Prime studio efforts. Amazon STudios said that the five shows will be developing pilots, which will be posted on Amazon Instant Video, Prime Instant Video, Lovefilm UK and Lovefilm Germany, where viewer response and feedback will determine if those shows will be produced. The new shows come on top of an earlier six, comedy pilots that Amazon approved in D (More info...)
posted on Friday, February 1, 2013(Full story)
MomentFeed Raises $1.7M MoreMomentFeed, the developer of location-based analytics software headed by Rob Reed, has raised $1.75M in new funding, according to a regulatory filing from the firm Thursday. Details on the funding have yet to be announced. Santa Monica-based develops software which helps retailers better understand the social interaction of consumers with their retail locations, including such things as Facebook Places, Foursquare, and Instagram. MomentFeed's prior investor include a who's who list of local ange (More info...)
posted on Friday, February 1, 2013 (More)(Full story)
eHarmony Users Shift To MobileOnline dating site eHarmony is reporting that it's seeing an increasing number of users using its mobile apps to access its dating service, and also said that conversions of those users is up nearly 40 percent year to year. The Santa Monica-based company, which offers up iPhone, iPad, Android, and mobile web versions of its service, said that its success in getting users to convert to subscriptions on mobile is contrary to recent reports of challenges in getting users to convert on mobile. eHarm (More info...)
posted on Friday, February 1, 2013(Full story)
Row 44 Deal Approved By Global Eagle StockholdersThe acquisition of Los Angeles-based in-flight Wi-Fi equipment provider Row 44 has been approved by the stockholders of acquiring firm Global Eagle Acquisition Corp., Golden Eagle said Thursday. Global Eagle had announced its acquisition of Row 44 in November, in a deal worth approximately $430M, including the acquisition of Advanced Inflight Alliance AG, an investor in Row 44 and developer of inflight entertainment equipment. Row 44 is a developer of satellite-based, in-flight Wi-Fi services an (More info...)
posted on Friday, February 1, 2013(Full story)