The makers of the Peel iPod phone adapter have outdone themselves. Their new device – called the Vooma Peel PG92 – is a unique case that, in conjunction with a jailbroken iPhone – adds dual SIM capabilities to the iPhone 4 and 4S.

The device itself consists of a back-up battery that can charge your phone and what amounts to a dumbed-down cellphone. When you jailbreak your iPhone and download the Vooma app, you can control the phone inside the case to make calls using an SIM card. In short, it charges, unlocks, and enables dual SIMs for your iPhone.

The model I tested is still in pre-release stage and you can enter your email address at the Vooma website to request more information on the device. Once it’s set up the Peel PG92 works seamlessly and even uses a similar interface to Apple’s own dialer – although it’s clear that the programmers had to cut a few corners to get the look and feel correct. For example, the dialing screen is actually a bitmapped copy of the original dialer and the letters and numbers are slightly warped. However, all of the major functionality is recreated in the Vooma app.

However, this is clearly a very cool and clever hack and it works without problems on any jailbroken iPhone. Because it also ostensibly unlocks your iPhone the PG92 adds quite a bit of value in a package that is little bigger than a standard iPhone case.

Microsoft may be preparing for a big Mango push here in the States, but the Wall Street Journal reports that Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently took them to task at a press conference for claiming that Android devices infringe Microsoft-owned patents.

“Microsoft is not telling the truth on this issue, and they are using tactics to scare people because they are scared of the success of Android,” Schmidt said.

Microsoft has targeted several Android device manufacturers in recent months, with big names like Acer, HTC, and Samsung agreeing to Microsoft’s terms. According to a recent blog post by Microsoft General Counsel and EVP Brad Smith, “companies accounting for more than half of all Android devices” have entered into such licensing deals with Microsoft.

Though the specifics of the deals are never fully disclosed, Microsoft receives per-unit royalties from each of the companies that have accepted their terms.

Just this morning it was revealed that Microsoft aimed to add another name to their long list of licensees: Huawei CMO Victor Xu said to the Guardian that the Chinese OEM was approached by Microsoft to sign a similar agreement, and that negotiations were currently “in progress.”

Is Microsoft really afraid of the little green robot that could? It’s certainly possible, considering that Android remains the most-used smartphone OS in the United States and has considerable footholds in many other major markets. The United States will soon be subjected to (another) big Windows Phone push, but Microsoft will still be able to collect royalties on Android hardware should the wave of Mango-powered devices fail to strike a chord with consumers.

While Microsoft certainly has quite the racket running, I’m not convinced that it was born out of fear when it comes to Android. I think that even Microsoft realizes how difficult it would be to dethrone Android, and their string of licensing agreements makes them appear content to capitalize on their success. Even if Microsoft does manage to claim the top spot, you had better believe they will continue to collect those royalties. If anything, it seems like an insurance policy intended to pad Microsoft’s coffers regardless of how things turn out.

Here’s some good news for web video publishers and producers. Online video advertising budgets are expected to jump sharply in 2012. Brand advertisers who purchased online video ads this year are projected to spend 47 percent more next year. These numbers were released this morning in the second annual “Video State of the Industry Survey” by Adap.tv and Digiday.

For advertisers that didn’t purchase any video ads so far this year, 84% say they will include digital video in their campaigns in Q4 2011 or 2012.

Advertisers say they are most likely to shift spending away from display and print ads to fund the increased online video spending. While some have feared online video might start replacing TV ad spending, the report claims television ad budgets, especially for cable, are safe for now. A majority of advertisers say online video ads are a direct compliment to TV, not a replacement for TV ads.

The report, which surveyed nearly 600 advertisers, publishers, and video technology providers, says rates for interactive video ads are up an average of 19 percent over last year.

Some other key findings:

• Brand engagement is the top online video campaign objective.
• Sharing video via social networks is an important return-on-investment metric for buyers.
• Rich media overlays, pre-rolls, and content integration are the favorite ad formats.
• Page-roll, expanding video banners, and post-rolls are the least favorite.
• Video ad spending on the iPad is up 18%, the highest among all devices.
• Average CPM for Premium content, broadcast content online: $21-$30
• Average CPM for Mid-Tier, professionally produced content: $11-$20
• Average CPM for User Generated Content: $0 – $5

A webcast about the findings will be streaming at Noon ET at www.digidayvideo.com. There will also be a Twitter-based Q&A at 1pm ET via @Adap.tv with the hashtag #StateofVideo. When the webcast ends, the report will be available online at www.adap.tv/insights.

The business and technology of online video will also be the big topic today when the Streaming Media West conference kicks off in Los Angeles.

[Image: robertlamphoto/Shutterstock]

After months of uncertainty and allegations thrown out left and right, Olympus admitted today that it has been hiding company losses for the past two decades.

Here’s what’s up: Including the 2008 takeover of medical equipment maker Gyrus, the company used four acquisitions to cover up losses on securities investments, as well as advisory fees. Bloomberg reports that the company payed inflated fees to takeover advisors, which effectively covered up Olympus losses from the 90′s.

Three executives are at the heart of the corporate scandal, now-President Shuichi Takayama told reporters in a press conference. EVP Hisashi Mori and auditor Hideo Yamada are both no longer with the company, as they were directly involved with the cover-up along with former Olympus Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa. Takayama claims he was completely unaware of the wrongdoing up until this point.

The revelation came about after an independent investigation took a hard look at Olympus’ past records. In October, then-CEO Michael Woodford was fired after only two weeks at his post. While Woodford maintained his removal was due to allegations he’d made about the company’s financial maneuvering, Olympus simply cited his management style. Lo and behold, just a few short months later Mr. Woodford has now been seemingly vindicated. Around $1.5 billion was, indeed, filtered through offshore funds to cancel out soured securities investments, reports Shukan Asahi Magazine.

Not surprisingly, Olympus shares have plummeted, down 30 percent. 5-percent Olympus shareholder Josh Shores told Reuters that “ignorance is no defense. If you were there and not aware of it, then you were incompetent. If you were there, and aware of it without asking tough questions, then you were negligent. Either way, you need to leave.” Shores wants the entire board replaced.

“This is very serious,” said ITC Investment Partners chief investment officer Ryosuke Okazaki. “Olympus admitted it has made false entries to cover its losses for 20 years. All people involved in this over 20 years would be responsible. There is a serious danger that Olympus shares will be delisted. The future of the company is extremely dark.”

BankSimple, the well-funded startup that’s setting out to build ‘a bank that doesn’t suck’, has some big news today: it’s now allowing its first users into the service. And to mark the occasion, it’s announcing another major change: the company is now just called Simple (and yes, they own Simple.com).

Simple has gotten a lot of pre-launch coverage — it was co-founded by CEO Joshua Reich, CFO Shamir Karkal and CTO Alex Payne, who made a big splash when he announced he was leaving his role as Twitter’s API lead to help start the new banking service. The company has also raised a lot of money for a service that has yet to launch, with a $3.1 million round in September 2010 and another $10 million in August 2011.

But it wasn’t until this past September that the company posted a video showcasing some of Simple’s early feature set (you’ll find it embedded below). And, as the video shows, Simple has built a user experience that’s much better than other banking services. Simple isn’t a bank itself — it’s working with FDIC-insured banks that will handle your money, as it serves as the more human-friendly frontend.

To be clear, this is still a limited beta. If you go to Simple.com you’ll note that you need an invitation, but it marks the first time that non-employees will be able to use the service.

From the company’s blog post announcing the news:

We're thrilled to be welcoming our first customers. We want to understand what works for them and what can be improved. We also want to learn how our customers prefer to reach us so that we can intelligently grow our customer relations team. Using this feedback, we'll rework and revise; the experience we're launching today will continuously evolve. There is still a tremendous amount to be done, but as of today we are live to our first customers, and that's a huge milestone for us.

Today is a new beginning for another reason as well: BankSimple is now Simple. Simple is a better representation of what we aspire to. It releases us from the constraints of an industry in desperate need of innovation.

Using Simple, you can make purchases with a Simple Visa® card, pay bills, earn interest, set up and track savings goals, and much more. Simple replaces your bank, but we are not a bank. You use our mobile and web apps and speak with our customer relations team when you have questions. We partner with chartered banks that hold your deposits in FDIC-insured products. They take care of money, we take care of customers, and together we're delivering a new type of financial experience that's easier, faster, and friendlier.

Facebook has apparently completed yet another small acquisition, snapping up HTML5 app distribution platform company Strobe.

In a blog post, Strobe founder (and creator of open source JavaScript framework SproutCore) Charles Jolley says the Strobe service will continue to exist in its current beta form. SproutCore will live on as an independent project, he adds.

We're happy to announce that, as of this week, the Strobe team is joining Facebook!

Strobe was founded on the belief that HTML5 can transform the way average people use their mobile phones through apps that are available everywhere, anytime, on any device. Now we're joining the talented people at Facebook to help develop innovative mobile experiences for their users around the world.

For now, the Strobe service will continue to be available to existing users in its existing beta form. We will provide updates by email if and when this changes. SproutCore, meanwhile, will continue as an independent project.

Strobe has been a fantastic adventure. Thank you to everyone who has supported us. We look forward to working with you again in our future roles.

Sincerely,

- The Strobe Team

Strobe’s platform, which debuted back in September, helps developers build HTML5-based Web applications for desktops, smartphones and tablets, and lets them centrally manage them using a single interface. Sarah took a close look at Strobe when the service made its formal debut.

The company had raised $2.5 million from O'Reilly AlphaTech and Hummer Winblad.

Launchpad LA today announces it will accept applications for its third class of Los Angeles-based tech startups. There are significant VC commitments (listed below) – every entering company will get $50,000 in funding, mentorship from top VCs and successful entrepreneurs plus free office space. For any company interested in applying please visit the website.

History
For the past 2.5 years there has been an initiative in Los Angeles called Launchpad LA.

The goal for this organization is four-fold:

• To provide mentorship for some of the most promising young companies based in Los Angeles or willing to relocate to LA
• To give visibility to these companies to: Sources of funding (angels / VCs), business development partners, mentors who have themselves built successful companies, the press and potential employees to hire
• To show these companies that they can remain in LA. There is a robust eco system, great leaders and the ability to build companies with enormous exits.
• To provide an opportunity for VCs and senior executives to engage with the community by giving back rather than just attending more cocktail parties

How has Launchpad LA done? 23 companies have gone through Launchpad LA. Of these 19 have received funding (10 have received significant amounts of VC funding) and 5 have been acquired (2 for more than $30 million). But the most important metric has been the deep and lasting relationships that have been built with startups and also between senior executives. One senior mentor to Launchpad LA recently said,

“I got more out of Launchpad LA than I even put in. One of the people I mentored is now a senior executive at AOL in NY. And my company is hugely relevant to what they’re doing so having an advocate at senior levels there is certainly a help.”

We get feedback like this often.

So What is Different for Class Three?
The first two years of the program focused on education & mentorship. There were regular events where experts talked about: fund raising, term sheets, constructing a team, product development, establishing biz dev partners, M&A, dealing with the press, etc. This education will continue.

But this year there are two new components: funding & a facility.

Each company will receive $50,000. Several funds and firms are participating in this investment including Rincon Ventures, Idealab (Bill Gross built the original incubator and there will be active support from Allen Morgan), Baroda Ventures, GRP Partners, David Cohen (founder of TechStars), David Tisch (founder of TechStars NY), DLA Piper and Stubbs Alderton.

Office space will be free and is in Santa Monica, walking distance to the Third Street Promenade.

Each local participating VC will base themselves out of this facility at least 1 day / week and plan to spend time actively with any company that is admitted into Launchpad LA.

There is also an amazing group of VC & Individual advisors who will help participate and steer the direction of Launchpad LA including:

VCs: 500 Startups, BlueRun Ventures, First Round Capital, MK Capital
Individuals: Jason Calacanis, Paul Kedrosky, Peter Levin (Principal, GeekChicDaily/Nerdist Industries), Howard Lindzon & Eric Ries

This is in addition to great mentors and this list keeps growing.

Superstar Sam Teller has joined to run Launchpad LA. He previously co-founded Charlie, a Los Angeles based media company and interactive agency, where he worked on projects for Samuel L. Jackson, Tumblr, and Dick Clark Productions. Sam was also a member of Barack Obama's presidential campaign and inaugural new media team and previously worked for Google, Credit Suisse, The Colbert Report, and Senators John Kerry and Hillary Clinton.  Sam was born and raised in Los Angeles and is thus a huge champion of the LA startup community. He received a BA from Harvard, where he was business manager of the Harvard Lampoon.

Adam Lilling will continue to be an active leader in running Launchpad LA. Adam played a hands-on role in helping many of our last class through funding and even took some board seats and advisory roles. Sam & Adam will be joined by Josh Webb who I have worked closely with and who formerly worked at Idealab.

But wait, does that make Launchpad LA an incubator now?We always wanted to be seen as a “mentorship organization” where people are asked to give back to their community. But having an

office space would allow us to spend more time together and also allow others when they’re visiting from out of town to have a place to hang out and to get to know some of LAs most promising companies. So we went ahead. And everybody seemed to want to see us have a fund so we’ll do that, too.

We sort of think of ourselves as an “accelerator” who provides strong education & mentorship.

There are at least 6 incubators now being set up in LA. Can the community support them? I use the words of one of the wisest men in this space who started much of this revolution, Bill Gross of Idealab who said:

 ”I think that the more initiatives, the better … I think it's the many initiatives and variety that make Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley and that we need to do more of that here.”

So we’ll be supportive every initiative in town and doing all that we can in LA to encourage more tech entrepreneurship across any startup incubation or acceleration programs.And we agree with that. If our community supports more potential entrepreneurs to try, if it funds more people with dreams, if it surrounds talented people with mentors, if it coaches them through their first deals and their team formation … that’s got to be a great win for society overall and for LA in specific.

This is in addition to some great colocation facilities such as CoLoft.

Some recent funding & M&A successes:

Here are some examples of recent news from Launchpad LA companies. Not exclusive and in no order. All are big successes for LA. Some needed us more, some needed us less. All have become valuable contributors to the LA ecosystem and is what makes things here so great.

1. MovieClips – Announces $7m funding from MK Capital, Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, SoftTech, VC and Felicis Ventures.

2. Sometrics – Acquired by American Express for a reported $30m after being funded by Greycroft Ventures & Steamboat.

3. Cramster – Acquired by Chegg the leading online book rental company

4. TechForward – Raises $7 million from NEA & First Round Capital

5. Pose – Raises $5 million in 2 rounds from GRP Partners, True Ventures, Mousse Partners & Founder Collective

6. GumGum – Raises $11 million financing. CEO on front cover of Entrepreneur magazine.

7. DataPop – Raises $2 million from Rincon Ventures, IA Ventures and others

8. Gendai Games – Raises $7 million from Steamboat, DFJ Mercury, DFJ Frontier, Greycroft, ff Ventures and others

9. Ranker - Raises $1.3 million from Rincon Ventures & Tim Draper

and so much more. MobileRoadie, TicketMob and many others.

Come be a part of our future success. Apply here or send this post to your friends who should apply. Or if you need to reach us our email is launchpadla@gmail.com

We look forward to working with you.

In September, Wikets, Inc., announced it had raised $1.5 million from venture firms Andreessen Horowitz and Battery Ventures, as well as from six angel investors, to build a new iPhone application that allows users to rate products and share those recommendations with friends. Today, the app has gone live in iTunes.

The resulting product is deceptively simple. You make a recommendation, optionally share it with friends via Facebook or Twitter, and then get rewarded in the form of points that can be later turned in for gift cards at online merchants.

At launch, Wikets lets you recommend products from its featured partners and from 60 major retailers, including iTunes (music and apps), Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Best Buy, The Home Depot, Wine.com, and others, as well as any place you can pull up on Yelp or Foursquare. You can also scan a product’s barcode, if you choose.

Your recommendation, or “Rec” in Wikets’ lingo, is then shared within the app with your followers – that’s right, there’s a social networking component to Wikets, too. You can follow other users to see the products and places they like and can even “Re-Rec” those to your own friends, comment on them, or buy the product from within the app itself.

In order to encourage usage, Wikets doles out points for your recommendations, other in-app activity, and, most importantly, your purchases. (100 points = $1.00 USD). These points can later be redeemed for gift cards from select merchants.

But there’s a bit more to Wikets than a simple recommendations/reward system. In the app’s main stream, which includes all the recommendations on the service, there’s a search button to find recommendations from others or to find users by name, plus filters for popular recommendations, nearby recommendations and recommended people. As you browse through this stream, discovering new content, you can tap a button to add items to your wishlist or strike up a conversation around the item in question through a comments feature.

These social features of the app make Wikets feel more a social network built around products and places, as opposed to yet another user reviews type service.

At its core, however, Wikets isn’t all that different from Oink, the first app from Kevin Rose’s startup lab Milk. Like Wikets, Oink lets you rate items (well, actually anything – not just products and places), filter by location, popularity and more. Except in Oink’s case, you build up “cred” not points, and that cred doesn’t amount to much – certainly not real-world rewards. But Oink at least offers the ability to drill down to make granular recommendations – a particular beer at a bar, a dish at a restaurant, and so on.

Arguably, all these recommendations, both on Oink or Wikets, could just as easily be added to any social, user reviews or check-in app, like Yelp, Facebook or Foursquare. There’s also the question of whether rewards are enough to keep users engaged on Wikets for an extended period of time, once the “shininess” wears off. There are always those who will do anything for a reward, whether that’s using a particular search engine or taking an online survey, but true engagement comes from building an addictive and enjoyable service or one that fills a real need (or even better, one that does both).

For Wikets to be successful, it has to change users’ current behavior surrounding social recommendations – that is, it requires you to first recommend on Wikets and then share with friends on Facebook or Twitter. That’s the opposite of how we operate today. When you have a quick thought about the delicious dish you’re enjoying at a new restaurant, a great deal you just found, or a new app you love, we typically first take to social networks to make that recommendation. Perhaps Wikets would have been better if it built on top of that behavior – that is, it pulled in your recommendations from your social networks and then allowed you to rate them in the app.

You can try Wikets for yourself here in iTunes.

Livestream co-founder Max Haot says 30-million monthly unique viewers depend on Livestream for coverage of events ranging from Occupy Wall Street to f8. This year Livestream expects to more than double its 2010 revenue to $12.5-million and is rolling out enhancements that include a rewind in real-time option along with social media features.

It’s a far cry from five years ago when Livestream was operating under a completely different name and was focused on owning a completely different space. Chris Dixon dives into the backstory in this episode of Founder Stories.

Dial back to 2006/2007 and Haot was putting his team together while bootstrapping the company with a few hundred thousand dollars from a previous exit. He tells Dixon they had “the right product but the wrong vision.”

Unveiled under the name Mogulus, the service was intended “to help bloggers create 24/7 live TV stations” but his team “realized bloggers don’t really have the resources, the monetization, the content, [or] the audience” that would propel Mogulus to success. However, they stumbled across something else that could – events. Sensing potential in the overall raw concept, angel investors swooped in to back the company and helped them mushroom to 120 employees.

While expanding, Haot tells Dixon Livestream formulated a plan to fend off piracy. The startup keeps tabs on content new producers broadcast and limits them to 50-viewers, so if an infraction occurs damage is minimal. If larger producers stream copyrighted material, they’re shut down.

He calls it a “zero-tolerance” approach.

Make sure to watch the entire video for additional insights and check out past episodes of Founder Stories featuring Dropbox, Kickstarter, Reddit, Eventbrite, and Tumblr.

Episode II of this interview is coming up.

Disclosure: TechCrunch Disrupt streams via Livestream

For SMBs, managing banking and payment processes is not as easy — or as secure — as it should be. So, coming out of stealth today is a Boston-based startup called MineralTree that is looking to fix both of these problems. Tomorrow, at the Small Business Banking Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, MineralTree will officially launch its first product: A cloud-based banking and payment solution designed specifically for SMBs.

Backing the startup in its mission to create an easy payment solution for small businesses is a cool $1.5 million in seed funding, raised from .406 Ventures, which has enabled MineralTree to develop its payments solution and make its initial hires, partnerships, and customer acquisitions. The most notable of which is the startup’s partnership with Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California — the first financial institution to implement MineralTree’s solution and offer it to its SMB customers.

So, MineralTree is off to a good start, but you might be wondering why the world needs another payment solution, and why partnering with the big, bad banks is going to ingratiate MineralTree to your ranks. Well, the thing is that there are all kinds of laws and protections in place for your average, everyday consumer to protect them from fraud and those punks who love to steal personal information from your browser. On the flip side, enterprises and big businesses have the cash to invest in more sophisticated payment systems (i.e. ERP software) to secure their payments. But, for the 2.5 million SMBs in the U.S. — those with annual revenue between $500,000 and $50 million — the options aren’t so stellar.

Most SMBs use ad hoc processes that are manual, paper-based and therefore inefficient and inherently less secure. What’s more, controls, oversight and approvals can be time-consuming and a pain in the ass. In terms of security, for consumer accounts, individuals have 60 days to notify their bank of unauthorized transactions (in the case of fraudulent activity), whereas business account holders have only one business day to report the attack — after that, the bank is no longer liable.

In one case, MineralTree Founder and CEO BC Krishna said, a small business saw millions of dollars worth of fraudulent withdrawals, yet even after following their bank’s instructions for reporting the attack, they were found liable and were not reimbursed. This kind of problem, in 2011, is unacceptable, so Krishna and company devised a solution that is layered over existing accounting applications and integrates directly with the bank’s payment systems without making changes to either.

MineralTree’s Accounting Manager app is a web-based add-on to the SMB’s existing accounting system that businesses can use to manage payables, including entering payment information, associate payments with backup documents, along with the ability to prioritize, recommend and submit payments to the CFO or business owner for approval.

The startup then provides a separate “CFO App” that lets the financial officer, or the executive in charge, to approve and release payments. Both accounting manager and CFO apps are available on the iPad or via a secure web app. In turn, the bank used by the SMB gets a third web-based app that enables the financial institution to manage its MineralTree users.

Each of the three apps are linked to the startup’s payment server, which coordinates and manages all payment functions in the system, between customers, the bank, and payment service providers, etc. While it may sound like there are a lot of moving parts, in reality, the MineralTree solution provides an all-in-one, universal platform for all the payment channels an SMB or bank uses, whether it be check, ACH, wire, payment cards, PayPal, or mobile banking.

The SMB does not pay MineralTree anything to use its system, instead MineralTree monetizes through its partnerships with banks, allowing the bank to choose at what price it will offer MineralTree’s apps to its SMB customers. Though Krishna said, on average, the cost will work itself out to approximately $75 a month.

Considering the solution applies modern electronic document-management technologies to eliminate paper trails and a simple, auditable workflow, as well as reduced risk of fraud by automatically matching bank statements with general ledger entries, and increased security — it seems like a small price to pay for the ROI.

What’s more, banks and financial institutions are not particularly happy with being disintermediated, and PayPal is a good example of this. Merchant receiving has, by and large, been taken over by PayPal — a third party service not controlled by banks. However, MineralTree is focused on business sending, and its solution inherently allows banks to retain control over this process, while making money by offering the startup’s enhanced functionality to their business clients. That revenue stream should be enough of a value proposition for banks to get on board.

Unfortunately, though, for those SMBs who want to take advantage of the service, they’ll have to wait until their bank signs on board — there’s currently no workaround option for SMBs. But Krishna said the team is working fast and furiously to convince banks to adopt so that small businesses won’t have to worry for long about this hurdle.

MineralTree’s payments platform is definitely niche, but for the 2.5 million SMBs currently operating in the U.S., this has the potential to solve a lot of problems inherent to the paper-based and snail-slow payment, approval, and accounting processes many are currently working with. It will be interesting to see if the team can convince the big banks that this is a workable solution for their SMB clients.

For more, check out MineralTree at home here.

Exclusive - Tinkercad, a startup that aims to introduce browser-based 3D printing CAD to the masses, has landed $1M in seed funding from True Ventures, Jaiku founder Jyri Engestrom, Delicious founder Joschua Schachter, Eghosa Omogui and Taher Haveliwala.

The company’s mission is to ‘reach and teach’ a wide audience on the use of CAD software and creating ‘fun and meaningful’ things like jewelry, toys, car parts and whatnot, using 3D printers.

Kai Backman, Tinkercad’s co-founder and CEO, explains that one only needs a browser and a couple of minutes to use its browser-based software and have a 3D project ready for printing.

"We use game-like quests to teach what we call 'design literacy', understanding the design of physical things. By lowering the barrier of entry, our users have been able to create and print a wide variety of awesome items”, he adds.

Tinkercad is free, and encourages sharing designs under a creative commons license. Once users create designs with the software, which seems pretty easy to use based on my rudimentary testing, they can order designs directly from printing services like Shapeways and i.Materialise or download STL files to use other printing services or personal 3D printers like Makerbot’s Thing-O-Matic.

If you’re into this kind of stuff, check Tinkercad out, and I would also urge you to also visit GrabCAD.

7-, 9-, or 10-inch tablets are out: NEC Japan today announced the so-called X-info Table [JP], a 52-inch “tablet” (NEC does use this term to market the device) with full HD resolution. Much like similar devices, the idea is to make it simple for multiple users to view and alter content shown on the screen at the same time.

NEC says that the X-info Table supports up to ten touch points simultaneously.

Technically, the tablet features

• Core i7 CPU
• Windows 7 OS
• 6GB memory
• set of peakers
• three USB ports
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• GIS support
• TransferJet support
• sub-display support (up to four screens at the same time)
• scanning function
• size: 1,600x900x1,000mm, weight: 160kg

NEC plans to start selling the X-info table in Japan from February with an open price model.

Disruptive mobile payments company Square has just brought on a new investor-Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group. This comes on the heels of the company’s recent $100 million funding round led by led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. The exact amount of Branson’s investment was not disclosed.

According to Square, Branson “took interest in Square’s rapid growth and novel technology, in particular its free hardware that allows anyone to accept credit card payments anywhere, anytime.”

“I'm very passionate about helping people start and grow successful businesses, and Square is an incredible technology that inspires and empowers everyone to be an entrepreneur," said Branson in a statement.

Square has been on a roll of late, processing over $2 billion in payments annually and signing up 800,000 merchants to use its technology. This year, the company also signed retail deals with Apple, Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and most recently, Wal-Mart retail stores. And the company has added Kleiner partner Mark Meeker, Vinod Khosla and Larry Summers to its board.

Square says it plans to offer its mobile payments technology in international markets in 2012.

The release is embedded below.

Square Welcomes New Investor Sir Richard Branson
Legendary entrepreneur fuels momentum for rapidly growing company

Square launched in 2010 as an innovative way for individuals and businesses to accept credit card payments on their mobile devices. The company distributes an elegant and easy-to-use card reader and mobile application, which has seen widespread adoption. Despite having launched only a year ago, Square has shipped over 800,000 card readers to merchants and is currently processing over $2 billion in payments annually. While currently focused on its U.S. growth, the company plans to offer Square in international markets in 2012.

As a watch fan, setting your pieces back and forth a few times a year is trivial. But what if you’re dealing with a collection of 8,000 watches? This video shows how the folks at Tourneau Time Machine, New York’s largest watch shop, deal with all of the winding, setting, and checking of their entire stock.

The entire process takes three days, from Friday until Sunday.

The last part of the video is pretty cornball – this looks like some canned video commissioned by Tourneau itself so feel free to skip it. However, I had never thought over the work necessary to set every single watch in any watch shop, let alone one holding nearly 10,000 pieces.

via hodinkee

Flash sales giant Gilt Groupe is announcing major expansion plans to today, with the company’s e-commerce offering extending to over 90 countries. Additionally, Gilt will offer international customers free shipping for a limited time.

Gilt’s international sites will offer daily flash sales on women’s men’s and kids clothes and accessories, as well as home decor items through its Home vertical. Each sale contains a limited amount of inventory and lasts roughly 36 hours. Gilt says that nearly 50 percent of merchandise is sold during the first hour of a sale. The company’s recently launched luxury retail site for men, Park & Bond, will be made available to international customers next month.

Also starting next month, Gilt members outside of the U.S. will be able to shop and purchase from from their mobile devices through Gilt’s mobile website and iPad, iPhone and Android applications. Gilt says it is working with FiftyOne, an e-commerce platform that helps power international expansion and operations for online retailer, to enable international transactions, currency conversion, and international delivery.

International expansion is a big move for Gilt, so it should be interesting to see how the availability in over 90 countries around the world effects the company’s revenue. Gilt closed a $138 million round at about a $1 billion valuation last May and is on track to do $500 million in revenues this year. And an IPO may be in the company’s near future.

Any casual observer, male or female, knows that social networking has taken off not just because it’s a good idea but because more than 50% of the population – i.e. not just men – have found it appealing. Geeky guys might have enjoyed Alt. groups back in the day, but online interaction went truly mainstream when women got involved.

So it is that Luluvise has hit on a clever formula. It’s realised than too many of the platforms are designed by men. So this is a social and communications platform aimed at young women and their best friends where they can hand pick their best pals and network privately. Unsurprisingly, the company's aims to re-create the patterns of close female friendship online.

Thus it has raised $1 million in equity financing from Passion Capital, PROfounders Capital, and prominent angel investor Alexios Vratskides (founder/CEO of Upstream).

The Luluvise platform streamlines “girl time” activities – talking, sharing, gossiping, and shopping – by aggregating email, SMS, instant messages and comms in one secure place. Think unified messaging for young women, maybe. The target market is young women aged 18-35 around the world. Luluvise will be accessible online as well as via an iPhone and web app.

Sure, Facebook and Google+ could be used, as could Girlsguideto, but none have the express design for this purpose.

Makes sense. According to some industry figures women generate more than 70% of the messaging activity on Facebook, spend more than 35% more time on social networks than men, and drive 80% of all consumer spending.

The startup was founded in 2010 by Alexandra Chong (pictured), a former Global Head of Marketing & PR for Upstream and Director at the Corporate Executive Board. The team is 10-20 people, based in London, but the company is incorporated in the US.

Chong was inspired to create the company after wanting to share a private Valentine’s Day story with her girlfriends but ended up having to make three phone calls, seven text messages and two Skype calls just to get the story out. What she needed was a private space online to share it just the once.

The target launch date is mid-November. Users can sign up for now.

It’s likely there will be affiliate programs and e-commerce opportunities amongst others.

Chong herself has plenty to talk with her friends about. She’s a member of the Ladies First team at Queens Tennis Club in London, and previously represented Team Jamaica in the Federation Cup and Commonwealth Games (tennis).

Yesterday, Google launched brand Pages on Google+. Like Facebook Pages, Google+ Pages allow brands, products, companies, groups and others to create a professional presence on the social network. However, according to Google+’s Policies, it appears that Google will not allow brand Page owners to host contests or promotions directly on the on the social network itself.

Per Google’s Google+ Pages Contest and Promotion Policies section, Page admins are informed that they may not “run contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions” on their Google+ Page. Instead, they may display a link on Google+ that points to a separate site where the Promotion is hosted.

The folks over on Sociable.co noticed, too, that in the Additional Terms of Service for Google+ Pages, Google retains the right to block or remove Pages that violate these terms, or, in the case of repeat violations, suspend a user’s Google account. Incidentally, Google also notes that it may, without notice, remove any Google+ Pages that are dormant for more than nine months.

Google’s policy on promotions is remarkably different from Facebook’s, where contests are permitted given that they adhere to a set of  published Guidelines. One of the requirements for Facebook contests is that they must be administered within Apps on Facebook.com. But on Google+, it appears that Google wants no involvement with any of the legalities or liabilities of hosting contests whatsoever:

This could be a matter of Google just not being ready to deal with the overhead, the spam or the potential fraud that contests would inevitably bring to the network. But it could also be reflective of a broader vision that Google has for its social network – one where it’s not about tricking users into “liking” (plussing or Circling) a brand in order to win something (as is too often seen on Facebook), but one where users and brands have a different type of conversation.

We’ve reached out to Google to ask if the ban on contests was a temporary restriction or not, and will update if we hear back. 

PunchTab, a startup that offers a social loyalty platform for consumers, publishers, and businesses, has raised $4.4 million in Series A financing, led by Mohr Davidow Ventures. The startup previously raised $850,000 in seed funding from Mohr Davidow Ventures, Embarcadero Ventures, and angels Venky Harinarayan, Anand Rajaraman, and Nick Sturiale.

For background, PunchTab allows publishers to give reward points to users who check in to a site or blog every day. Visitors, which authenticate via Facebook Connect, can earn points for Facebook comments, WordPress comments and Facebook likes. Once a publisher rewards a user, the visitor can redeem the reward through the PunchTab rewards catalog.

The startup’s companion ‘PunchBowl’ mobile app (now rebranded as PunchTab Local) takes more of a local angle and allows businesses to create and publish giveaways. PunchTab Local gives consumers opportunities to enter local business giveaways by taking social actions. So customers receive one entry when they "like" a business' Facebook page, Tweet, or email links to the giveaway.

Currently, PunchTab powers more than 3,000 loyalty programs and thousands of giveaways, and reaches more than 7.5 million users each month. Using PunchTab's platform, the startup says that businesses have experienced a 50 percent increase in Facebook Fans, up to a 100 percent increase in repeat site visitors, and an increase in online purchases.

PunchTab, which was founded by YouSendIt founder Ranjith Kumaran, will use the funding for product development.

This morning, Amazon announced that Kindle Cloud Reader, the nifty HTML5-based Web app that lets customers read Kindle books in their browser (online or offline), is now available for Mozilla Firefox 6 and above, in addition to Google Chrome and Safari (on iPad and desktop).

Not much else to report in terms of news, but Chris Blizzard, Director of Platform Product Management for Mozilla’s Web browser, says there are now more than 450 million Firefox users worldwide.

We knew it was coming. First J&R prematurely listed the tab for pre-order, and then Samsung came out with an official announcement, which leads us to today: T-Mobile has finally confirmed availability and pricing for the dual-core Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.

In need of a refresher? No problem.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is one of T-Mobile’s many 4G-enabled tablets, meaning it runs on T-Mo’s HSPA+ network. The slate is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb, and packs 16GB of internal memory (expandable with up to a 32GB memory card). The 7-inch WVGA display sports a 1024×600 resolution — not quite on par with the GalTab 7.7, but respectable nonetheless. You’ll find a 3-megapixel rear camera capable of video capture in 720p and 1080p playback, along with a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter for video chat.

All in all, the .76lb tab is a pretty sweet little 7-incher. But the 7-inch category is lighting up, with offerings from Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The question is whether or not T-Mo’s HSPA+ network can pull people away from the lighter experiences being offered by these book sellers. Especially since these devices’ price tags are so similar.

If interested, you can pick up a Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus at T-Mobile for $249.99 with a two-year agreement and a $50 mail-in rebate. Slates hit shelves November 16.