Thursday, January 2, 2014DAR.fm Pushes Pro AccountsDAR.fm, the San Diego radio recording startup founded by MP3.com's Michael Robertson, told its users over the holidays that it would start restricting automatic downloads on the radio recording service to Pro level users, as a part of a push to get more users to sign up for its subscriptions. The service--which lets users record radio broadcasts automatically and play them later on the web, iPad, or other devices--said it would offer up upgrades to the "Pro" level of service to its current free (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)
Savings.com Backs LA's Plastic Bag Ban With Reusable TotesLos Angeles-based coupons and deals site Savings.com said this week that it's getting on board the ban of plastic bags in Los Angeles--a new law which went into effect on January 1st--by giving away reusable totes in Los Angeles. Savings.com said it will be handing out free, re-usable grocery totes all next week at the Vons at 4030 S. Centinela Ave. in Culver City, as part of a promotion of its new grocery coupon app, Favado. Savings.com didn't say how many reusable tote it intends to give away (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)
Rivalry Games Aims At NFL Playoff FansLos Angeles-based fantasy sports gaming company Rivalry Games is aiming at NFL fans, saying this week that it has launched a new, cash contest option for players of the company's Android and iPhone games. According to Rivalry Games, it has added cash contests to its games, which allows its users to play for actual dollars during NFL or college games. Rivalry Games offers up its skill-based, cash contest in the 42 states its legal team says approve of skills-based contests.
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)
Siemer Ventures Backs Japanese Mobile Video FirmSanta Monica-based venture capital investor Siemer Ventures is one of the backers of a new, Japanese mobile video entertainment startup, Breaker. According to Breaker, it has raised $2M in a seed funding round, to help bolster its efforts to produce and distribute mobile video entertainment in Japan. The funding was led by Dram Incubator, Inc., and also included Siemer Ventures and other investors. Siemer Ventures has been an active investor in overseas companies, and even has its own, Singapore (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014 (More)(Full story)
Fisker Automotive Gets Bid Interest From Wanxiang GroupThe fate of bankrupt electric auto developer Fisker Automotive continues to be in flux, as a report today from the Boston Globe said that Chinese company Wanxiang Group is looking to make a bid on Fisker Automotive, and has asked a judge to open up auctions for the remains of the company. Fisker has been working its way through bankruptcy, with plans most recently to sell its assets to Hong Kong's Hybrid Tech Holdings. Wanxiang Group is the owner of former Fisker Automotive battery supplier A123 (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)
LawKick: A Modern Way To Find Legal Help
It's never a great time: you figure out you have a legal problem, and need to find a lawyer. But, how do you start? The old way was difficult, time consuming, and often expensive; referrals, calling up lawyers, going through initial consultations. To shortcut what has been an antiquated way of connecting consumers with attorneys, Los Angeles startup LawKick (www.lawkick.com) has created an online, easy way to match up clients with lawyers, through a set of simple questions and answers about di (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)
IDrive Targets Consumers In New Year's Resolution PushLos Angeles-based online backup and cloud storage provider IDrive is targeting consumers with a New Year's resolution push, saying that users ought to sign up for the company's service as part of their New Year's resolutions. IDrive, which provides a number of different online storage and synchronization plans, offers up its services starting at $25 per year. The company is led y Raghu Kulkarni, and has recently been looking to challenge such services as Dropbox, Google, and others in gaining a (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)
Snapchat In Major Security BreachVenice-based social photo messaging service Snapchat had a major security breach over the holidays, when at least 4.6 million user names and phone numbers on the service were publicly published to the Internet. The breached data was apparently published via a post to Reddit. A number of security firms have published online tools to help users figure out if their data was exposed in the hack. Snapchat has not yet responded to the reports on the leaked data.
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)
CareFusion Completes Vital Signs BuySan Diego-based medical technology firm CareFusion said this week that it has completed its acquisition of the Vital Signs division of GE Healthcare in the U.S., China, and other geographies. The deal was worth $500M, and was funded through cash on hand. CareFusion said that so far it has paid $470M to GE Healthcare, with the balance due on completion of the acquisition of a number of Vital Signs' remaining international operations. The deal to acquire GE's Vital Signs division had been announce (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)
eHarmony Rolls Out Rose Bowl FloatSanta Monica-based online matchmaking site eHarmony rolled out its own Rose Bowl float yesterday, saying that it is the "first dot com" to have a float in the Rose Parade. eHarmony's float, "Everlasting Love", featured Natalie Cole singing her song "This will be", as well as couples who met via eHarmony. eHarmony's float was created by Phoenix Decorating Company, which also designed the floats for HGTV, Rotary International, Trader Joe's, and many others. eHarmony did not say how much it cost it (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)
Microsemi Debuts New ChipAliso Viejo-based semiconductor developer Microsemi announced this morning that it has launched a brand new chip. According to the company, it has launched a diode bridge, used to power wireless LAN access points, small cells, small switches and routers, and other devices. The new, MOSFET-based full-bridge rectifier device is used for Power-over-Ethernet (poE) and Power-over-HDBaseT (PoH) applications. Pricing was not announced; the company said it is shipping the new chip in sample quantities n (More info...)
posted on Thursday, January 2, 2014(Full story)