Here is the latest trailer for “Tower Heist,” the new Eddie Murphy/Ben Stiller movie that Universal will offer to home viewers for $59.99, while the Hollywood film is still in theaters.

It’s part of an unusual experiment in digital distribution.

It does look funny, but does it look $60 funny?

Airbnb, the fast-growing online accommodations service, is expanding an offering to allow users to more easily book longer rentals of a month or more.

The San Francisco-based company said in a press release that it had seen a “marked increase in users seeking and booking long-term stays.” So now, after already booking 3,000 monthly rentals, Airbnb said it is improving the functionality and expanding the long-term market on the site.

“Searches for reservations of a month or longer will now display the total monthly price directly in search results,” said Airbnb.

The move will add more competitors to Airbnb, including huge sites such as Craigslist, which specialize in longer-term rentals. Until now, the well-funded site — which has just recovered from a recent controversy over a booking gone bad — has focused on shorter, hotel-like offerings, but at people’s homes.

Earlier this year, it started selling discounted hotel rooms, and today it is announcing that it will offer deals on auto and home insurance.

The online retailer is now focused on four main categories: Shopping — which includes everything from books to clothing and home and garden — discounted cars, vacations and now insurance.

In March, O.co entered travel by hiring its own dedicated sales team. This time it’s partnering with Answer Financial, which is one of the largest auto and home insurance agencies in the U.S., in order to offer insurance.

O.co said consumers will be able to compare quotes from as many as 20 insurance providers and will be able to save an average of $468 a year on auto policies.

While other insurance sites offer to compare rates, O.co’s CEO Patrick Byrne said you can’t trust the companies to show rates lower than their own.

“This is a niche that I don’t think has been done by any large shopping site,” he said.

In January, it introduced the domain name O.co, which initially served as a shortcut to its regular Web site. During an introductory period, customers who shopped at O.co received free shipping.

Byrne said the reason behind the name is to have a more recognizable brand across the 90 countries in which it operates. The plan was for the domain name to change permanently internationally, and only to experiment with the shortcut domestically.

Now, it intends to accelerate the shift from Overstock.com to O.co in the U.S. as well.

“We saw more of a pick-up than we had anticipated. Today, a significant portion of our business is finding us from O.co,” he said.

Byrne expects to launch one more category in the next couple of months.

Nordstrom will acquire the company for $180 million in stock. However, the transaction size could jump to as much as $270 million over time if the company meets certain performance goals and vesting requirements for the existing management team.

At that price, the transaction gives a lot of weight to a burgeoning new area of e-commerce, fueled by private/flash sales and other group-buying trends.

Los Angeles-based HauteLook offers discounts of 50 to 75 percent off home, beauty, travel and local services for women, men and kids. In the last two years, HauteLook says it has conducted 2,500 private sales events for 1,000 high-profile brands.

Seattle-based Nordstrom said HauteLook will operate as an independent, wholly owned subsidiary, to be managed by its current leadership. The HauteLook brand and Web site will remain separate from Nordstrom, and there are plenty of incentives to keep the management team in place.

While Nordstrom is primarily a physical department store, it has a fairly sizable online presence and recently has spent time integrating its online and store presence, so customers can see what inventory is online and what’s available in the store.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory and HauteLook shareholder approval.

An astonishing spike. And it’s even more astonishing when you break it down by sector. In the global home or consumer market, the Mac posted shipment growth of 17.1 percent, while the broader market posted a decline of .6 percent. In the business market, Mac shipments grew 65.4 percent compared to the market growth rate of 9.7 percent. And in government, they grew 549.5 percent compared to the broader market’s 8.4 percent. Of course, government sales represent only 1 percent of total Mac sales, so that spike appears more dramatic than it really is, but still…

So what’s the engine for all this growth? Needham analyst Charlie Wolf thinks it’s a halo effect from Apple’s iOS device trinity–the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad–particularly, the latter two, which are gaining lots of traction in both the home and business markets (Oddly, Apple suffered a decline in the education segment, where it has traditionally been pretty strong).

“The surge in Mac sales in the business market coincided with the introduction of the iPad in the second quarter of 2010,” says Wolf. “It would be foolish to assign a cause and effect connection between the two events. However, in less than a year, the iPad has been deployed or piloted in 80 of the Fortune 100 companies, and it’s reasonable to assume the device has invaded smaller businesses at a similar pace. It’s likely, then, that the halo effect emanating from the iPad will be far stronger than the iPhone halo effect in the business market if only because the iPad is a kissing cousin of Apple’s family of notebook computers.”

In a bold and definitive move, AOL is paying $315 million, mostly in cash, to buy the Huffington Post, one of the Web’s most prominent news and opinion sites.

As part of the deal, Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington (pictured here)–who was derided by some when she co-founded the left-leaning site in 2005 with investor and well-known communications exec Kenneth Lerer–will become president and editor in chief of the Huffington Post Media Group within AOL.

The deal was signed late this afternoon, and the board of directors of each company and shareholders of the privately held Huffington Post have approved the transaction.

In an exclusive video interview BoomTown conducted earlier today in Dallas, just before Super Bowl XLV, both Armstrong and Huffington were jovial that the whirlwind deal, begun in November, actually worked out so quickly.

Perhaps giddy, they hit upon a common motto:

“One plus one equals 11.”

Get it? One and one next to each other is the number 11!

Let’s move on, shall we?

AOL said it is expected to close in the late-first or early-second quarter of 2011.

Once culminated, it will put Huffington in charge of all AOL content and other properties, including well-known names such as Engadget, Moviefone, MapQuest and TechCrunch.

She said she plans to move to New York from Los Angeles, although she will also maintain her longtime Brentwood home there.

And content for all these sites will be integrated deeply into the Huffington Post, giving it a huge new infusion of editorial material.

More to the point, the flashy acquisition–which essentially came together in less than two weeks in January–will become the linchpin of AOL CEO Tim Armstrong’s aggressive, if risky, strategy to focus the long-troubled company as a content and advertising powerhouse.

For AOL, the deal gives it a popular branded site that is very good at generating lots of page views and impressions very efficiently–which is the company’s whole thrust these days.

That means lots more ad inventory to sell and an injection of content talent, giving AOL the scale it desperately needs.

The move also obviously gives AOL a much-needed editorial identity and cohesion, which it doesn’t really have.

In fact, many think AOL needs a rallying point to bring clarity to its hodgepodge of recent acquisitions that all center on the notion that a strong company has yet to emerge in the premium content space.

Here is a mock-up of the front page of AOL tonight (click on it to make it larger):

While it all makes for a riveting narrative by the charming Armstrong, AOL still has not delivered the business turnaround promised after its spinoff from Time Warner in 2009.

Wall Street, which has given Armstrong a lot of rope, has become more impatient of late to see results–especially more robust increases in its display advertising business, as its access business dies off–after AOL spun off from Time Warner in 2009.

In its quarterly report last week, AOL reported earnings of 61 cents a share on revenue of $596 million.

But, as MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka wrote:

The bigger picture is that Armstrong’s turnaround is still in progress. Ad revenue was down 29 percent in the last quarter, although that number is worse than it looks. A big chunk of the decline comes from moves AOL has intentionally made that will cut revenue in the short run in return for more profitable sales down the road.

A more representative data set for Armstrong are his display ad sales, which are down 14 percent overall and eight percent in the U.S..

The bad news is that the rest of the Web ad industry is well into rebound mode; the good news is that AOL has trained Wall Street to expect numbers like these. If you’re waiting to see positive sales numbers, Armstrong said during AOL’s earnings call this morning, wait until the second half of this year.

In any case, the move is a good one for the Huffington Post since it will vault it to the next level of growth.

Other companies, such as Yahoo and NBC Universal, had looked at the company as a purchase target, and many expected it to eventually sell out to a larger company.

Sources close to the Huffington Post said that that outcome seemed the most likely, and the recent expansion of the site and its audience made it a good time to do a deal now.

Talks with Yahoo last year went nowhere, sources said, but Armstrong was not as slow to act.

Indeed, the actual deal happened quickly, said Armstrong and Huffington in a video interview with BoomTown earlier today (which you can see here).

The pair started talking in early November of last year at the Quadrangle Conference in New York and continued their discussions through the holidays.

Armstrong made the official offer to Huffington by phone in January, while she was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and he was snowed in in New York.

Five time multiple to the Huffington Post’s upward of $60 million in expected revenue for the coming year, and nearly 10 times the $31 million for 2010, the offer was accepted quickly.

AOL used cash for $300 million of the purchase and $15 million in stock for the rest.

“The idea of turning a fire hose of traffic onto our content made enormous sense,” said one person close to the situation. “Everything is changing so fast, it seemed like the time was right.”

An IPO was also considered for the Huffington Post, sources said. But since the site only recently moved into profitability–although barely–such an event would have been farther out.

That’s despite the fact that the Huffington Post has seen fast-growing traffic and influence, spurred in part by Huffington’s larger-than-life persona in both the mainstream media and blogosphere.

The wide-ranging site–which has added a number of content areas in recent years beyond its flagship political offering–currently has almost 26 million unique monthly visitors, according to recent stats, moving in close range to established news organizations such as the New York Times.

That kind of success seemed unlikely when the Huffington Post launched on May 9, 2005, positioning itself as as a liberal counterweight to the popular right-leaning Drudge Report.

But the Huffington Post’s heady mix of celebrity bloggers, personality and voice, as well as aggressive curation of links from other sites, quickly caught on.

To fund its efforts, the New York-based online media company has raised $37 million from angel investors such as Lerer–the largest individual shareholder, followed closely by Huffington–and venture firms such as Greycroft Partners, Softbank Capital and Oak Investment Partners.

The growth has not been without controversy around issues such as lack of payments to bloggers who contribute and accusations that the site uses too much content from other Web sources when linking.

And Huffington herself has also been a lightning rod, which has been both positive and negative for the site.

But, there is no question she is one of the Web’s most prominent players, along with writing books, appearing on television frequently and being a fixture at high-profile events in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

That includes a never-ending panoply of parties that feature a potent mix of movie stars, corporate poo-bahs, glad-handing politicians and lots of journalists from all over the media.

In fact, full disclosure, I was at one of those parties this past weekend for actor Colin Firth and others involved in the making of the Oscar-nominated film “The King’s Speech.” (Apropos of nothing, actor Helena Bonham Carter is as smart as you would expect, but much more delicate.)

As part of the AOL deal, CEO Eric Hippeau–who has been integral to professionalizing the business and will be joining Lerer Ventures–and Chief Revenue Officer Greg Coleman will leave the Huffington Post.

Ironically, Coleman was replaced by Armstrong as head of ad sales at AOL after he took over as CEO. Coleman got a big payout and will now apparently get another.

But the rest of the 200 Huffington Post employees are moving over to AOL with Huffington, who Armstrong hopes will be the company’s ace in the content hole going forward.

There are likely to be changes to come too at AOL, within weeks, especially in its content-side management and site staffs.

AOL provided some quotes in support of the deal from prominent Internet figures who know Huffington well.

“Arianna is one of the preeminent authors and editors of our time, and Tim has a remarkable track record of business success,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. “Bringing them together creates tremendous potential for AOL.”

And Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said:

“Editorial vision and leadership are essential in order to transmute our shared cacophony of voices into a valuable dialogue. Arianna’s expertise, empathy, and entrepreneurial enthusiasm forms a kind of alchemy turning mere words and phrases into powerful expressions of humanity.”

Inter-Internet harmony: How sweet!

Here is the official press release, with all the details, but there is also an 8 am ET AOL conference call tomorrow:

AOL AGREES TO ACQUIRE THE HUFFINGTON POST

Acquisition Will Solidify AOL’s Strategy of Creating a Premier Content Network With Local, National and International Reach

Arianna Huffington To Lead Newly Formed The Huffington Post Media Group Which Will Integrate All Huffington Post and AOL Content, Including News, Tech, Women, Local, Multicultural, Entertainment, Video, Community, and More

The New Combined Media Group Will Reach 117 Million Americans and 270 Million Globally

Group Uniquely Positioned To Redefine the Future of Brand Advertising and Marketing For an Engaged and Influential Audience

New York, NY–February 7, 2011–AOL Inc. [NYSE:AOL] announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire The Huffington Post, the influential and rapidly growing news, analysis, and lifestyle website founded in 2005, which now counts nearly 25 million unique monthly visitors*.

The transaction will create a premier global, national, local, and hyper-local content group for the digital age–leveraged across online, mobile, tablet, and video platforms. The combination of AOL’s infrastructure and scale with The Huffington Post’s pioneering approach to news and innovative community building among a broad and sophisticated audience will mark a seminal moment in the evolution of digital journalism and online engagement.

The new group will have a combined base of 117 million unique visitors a month in the United States and 270 million around the world**. Following the close of this transaction, AOL will accelerate its strategy to deliver a scaled and differentiated array of premium news, analysis, and entertainment produced by thousands of writers, editors, reporters, and videographers around the globe.

As part of the transaction, Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, will be named president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all Huffington Post and AOL content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, StyleList, and more.

“The acquisition of The Huffington Post will create a next-generation American media company with global reach that combines content, community, and social experiences for consumers,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL. “Together, our companies will embrace the digital future and become a digital destination that delivers unmatched experiences for both consumers and advertisers.”

Armstrong continued, “Arianna is a singularly passionate and dedicated champion of innovative journalistic engagement, and a master of the art of using new media to illuminate, entertain and enhance the national conversation. Arianna is a remarkable person and she will continue to create remarkable outcomes for the combined company.”

“This is truly a merger of visions and a perfect fit for us,” said Huffington. “The Huffington Post will continue on the same path we have been on for the last six years–though now at light speed–by combining with AOL. Our readers will still be able to come to the Huffington Post at the same URL, and find all the same content they’ve grown to love, plus a lot more–more local, more tech, more entertainment, more finance, and lots more video. We are fusing a legendary and powerful new media brand with a vibrant, innovative news organization, known for its distinctive voice, a highly engaged audience, an expertise in community-building, and a track record for demystifying the news and putting flesh and blood on the data while drawing our audience into the conversation.”

Huffington continued, “By uniting AOL and The Huffington Post, we are creating one of the largest destinations for smart content and community on the Internet. And we intend to keep making it better and better.”

Kenneth Lerer, The Huffington Post’s Co-Founder and Chairman, said, “The Huffington Post team has created a potent brand with the proven track record of knowing how to grow traffic, inform and entertain its readers and build a one-of-a-kind online community. Add that to the powerful scale and resources of AOL and you have the perfect combination for today and the future. Together these two companies will be a premier online content provider. From local citizen reporting through AOL’s Patch, to The Huffington Post’s national reporting on politics, business and culture, consumers will have access to everything they want whenever they want it.”

AOL has agreed to purchase The Huffington Post for $315 million, approximately $300 million of which will be paid in cash funded from cash on hand. The Huffington Post is privately owned by its two cofounders, as well as a group of investors. The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of government approvals. The boards of directors of each company and shareholders of The Huffington Post have approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the late first- or early second-quarter 2011.

The Huffington Post over-indexes on educated, affluent users, reaching the key decision makers in C-suites around the globe. The Huffington Post speaks to this influential audience via a host of prominent voices on its group blog. Among those who have blogged on The Huffington Post are: President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Larry Page, Diane Sawyer, Buzz Aldrin, Nora Ephron, Bill Maher, Madeleine Albright, Robert Redford, Katie Couric, Neil Young, Rahm Emanuel, Mia Farrow, Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Al Franken, Ari Emanuel, Harry Shearer, Senator John Kerry, Representative Nancy Pelosi, Madonna, Lawrence Summers, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ryan Reynolds, Craig Newmark, Alec Baldwin, Aaron Sorkin, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Russell Simmons, Sean Penn, Bill Gates, Norman Lear, Charlie Rose, Elizabeth Warren, Tavis Smiley, Sheryl Sandberg, George Clooney, and former President Bill Clinton. And the audience speaks back, generating four million comments a month***.

The Huffington Post’s affluent, influential audience, that is growing at a rate of 22 percent (December 2009 vs. December 2010)****, when combined with AOL’s massive scale, video offerings and local expertise, will represent an incredibly desirable demographic for a broad range of advertising partners across the board.

And here is Armstrong’s internal memo to the AOL staff:

AOLers,

We are taking another major step in the comeback of AOL. Today we are announcing that we have agreed to acquire The Huffington Post, one of the most exciting, influential, and fastest growing properties on the Internet. We believe in brands, quality journalism, and the positive role of communities in the world–The Huffington Post shares our values and the combination of the two companies will create the premier global and local media company on the Internet.

Co-founded six years ago by Arianna Huffington and Ken Lerer, The Huffington Post has grown to become an industry leader–one of the Web’s most popular and innovative sources of online news, commentary, and information. Arianna and team have created a brand and a destination that focuses on the consumer experience. By combining The Huffington Post with AOL’s network of sites, thriving video offerings, local expertise and enormous reach, we will create a company that is laser-focused on serving our audiences across every platform imaginable–social, local, video, mobile and tablet.

The Huffington Post is core to our strategy and our 80:80:80 focus–80% of domestic spending is done by women, 80% of commerce happens locally and 80% of considered purchases are driven by influencers. The influencer part of the strategy is important and will be potent.

The Huffington Post is a strong influencer brand and it attracts a valuable audience, including a great focus on women’s content. In addition, Arianna Huffington is a world-renowned expert on women’s topics and issues, and has enabled The Huffington Post to grow rapidly by continually developing new audiences.

In the local area, the combination of the two companies will create a scaled connection between global and local communities on one platform. This will create a new way for people to get local and global information in a timely and entertaining way.

The Huffington Post will join the family of AOL Brands that are destinations for an influencer audience, brands like TechCrunch, Engadget, AutoBlog, and Moviefone. Uniquely, The Huffington Post is the platform for influential people–the people that drive trends, commerce, politics, entertainment, news, and information. Adding this strategic platform to our already strong network of sites, including the AOL homepage, has the potential to make AOL the most influential company in the content space.

Arianna Huffington is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Internet space and someone that is even more successful in building communities and relationships in every corner of the globe. The Huffington Post and Arianna have created a company that has partnered with the most successful and well-known leaders in all aspects of society that touch important topics to give consumers direct access to the most influential decision makers and community leaders.

This acquisition will create a high-quality and diverse digital ecosystem encompassing local, national and international news, politics, entertainment, technology, fashion, sports, health, personal finance, green, lifestyle, the arts and more. This deal will combine the amazing talent at AOL with the innovative and talented staff of The Huffington Post. Here are just a few high-level points around what this deal brings to market:

* Together, AOL and The Huffington Post will have 117MM unduplicated domestic monthly UVs, and ~270MM monthly UVs worldwide (according to comScore Dec 2010).

* The Huffington Post is one of the fastest growing web properties on the Internet. It grew 22% last year–that’s faster than Twitter, which grew 18% – and 15x as quickly as the Internet grew last year (comScore Dec ’09-’10).

* Both AOL and The Huffington Post count powerful, affluent users among their top loyal visitors, significantly over-indexing in $100K+ income users.

* AOL passed Hulu in unique viewers on video in the fourth quarter of 2010; video views on AOL are up 400 percent year-over-year.

* Between AOL’s innovative Project Devil ad unit, engaging users for 27 seconds longer than traditional display ads, and The Huffington Post’s highly-vocal community, with 4MM+ comments per month, we will marry attention-grabbing content and brand experiences for both advertisers and consumers.

In the local area, the combination of the two companies will create a premier global/local syndication network at scale. This will create a new way for people to get local and global information in a timely, informative and entertaining way.

To maximize the strategic advantage of this great deal, we will be creating a new group at AOL called The Huffington Post Media Group. Within this group will be AOL Media, AOL Local & Mapping, AOL Search and our new friends at The Huffington Post. We will continue operating the towns structure, AOL.com and HuffingtonPost.com.

I’m thrilled to announce that Arianna Huffington will join AOL’s executive team as President and Editor in Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. We have asked Jon Brod to lead the overall operational integration on the AOL side of the combined entities. Jon will lead the local group integration and work closely with David Eun and the teams in AOL Media. We will work quickly with The Huffington Post to create a combined organizational design to coincide with the deal closing. While we wait for the required regulatory reviews to be completed and the transaction to close before implementing the design, we will move very quickly to plan the details of the integration of the two companies. To this end, we will announce the new organizational structure as soon as possible.

In the meantime, we will continue creating great content and products for our consumers within the town structure and stay laser-focused on the aggressive goals we have set for our winter luge. We are on the right track and will continue our weekly operating cadence and town structure to drive successful results against our company goals.

Here’s a special message for all of you we taped to welcome The Huffington Post and Arianna to our AOL Family:

http://today.office.aol.com/company-news/2011/02/aol-agrees-buy-huffington-post

And of course we wanted to welcome Arianna to our “You’ve Got” video of the day–check her out on AOL.com.

We will be holding a company all hands meeting to address your questions related to today’s exciting news. We will video conference from our New York office on the 6th Floor at 9:30 AM ET and will be joined by Arianna Huffington and key executives from her organization. We will also be holding a call for our west coast offices at 2:00 PM ET and for our Patch offices at 2:45 PM ET. See below for meeting info (conference rooms will be sent out shortly).

AOL is playing to win…and The Huffington Post and AOL will occupy a unique place in the future of the Internet. Let’s go get it done.

–TA

(More full disclosure: As has been previously reported by MediaMemo, All Things Digital had the briefest and most preliminary of discussions with Armstrong about moving to AOL last year, while exploring several other options. All’s well that ended well: We stayed at Dow Jones, which is owned by News Corp.)

The catch here is that the capability, which will be offered on Apple’s iPad as well as tablets running Google’s Android, will only work inside subscribers’ homes.

So you still can’t watch a live episode of “Two and a Half Men” on your iPad in the airport, but you will be able to watch it in your kitchen, while your better half watches “Frontline” in the living room. Or whatever.

It’s worth noting that Verizon announced its own version of this feature (with the same limitations), for its FiOS TV subscribers last summer, but has yet to roll it out.

Comcast will be demoing the feature later today at a Citigroup investors conference, but won’t be providing details about timing, or if there will be any programming restrictions on what you can watch on your tablet.

It’s possible there could be some holdouts, but the cable giant ought to be able to offer just about everything, since there’s no issue with carriage rights or ad loads, etc.–tablet watchers will be watching whatever’s already on live TV.

The killer feature, of course, would be the ability to do this on-the-go, but we’re not there yet, and it may take awhile to get there. Mobile rights for video–especially live video–are a whole different ball game.

Meantime, though, Comcast is offering a half-step–as previously promised, it will let traveling iPad users start to watch a selection of on-demand content, via its Xfinity TV app.

Comcast says it will offer some 3,000 TV shows and movies that iPad users can watch on-demand, over any network–AT&T’s 3G, or Time Warner Cable’s broadband, or whatever. Once that feature is up and running, which should be shortly, we’ll be able to compare that catalog to the ones that Netflix and Hulu Plus are offering for $7.99 a month.

And that’s the big picture here: Comcast and the other big cable providers, which continue to insist that cord-cutting isn’t real, want to make sure that it doesn’t become a reality, by offering their subscribers access to as much stuff, in as many places, as they can. It’s going to take years to find out whether that works or not, but best to start experimenting ASAP.

Movity was founded this year, with $1.3 million in funding.

Here is the full press release, along with some real estate news about Trulia’s new HQ:

TRULIA ACQUIRES MOVITY TO ACCELERATE AND ENHANCE THE ONLINE REAL ESTATE EXPERIENCE

Trulia Moves into New 30,000 sq foot Downtown San Francisco Location as the Company Continues to Grow at a Rapid Pace

SAN FRANCISCO, December 21, 2010–Trulia.com (www.trulia.com), a top site for homebuyers, sellers and renters, acquired Movity (www.movity.com ), a stealth start-up focused on surfacing geodata to help new movers make better decisions and creator of social check-in tracker www.weeplaces.com. Movity was part of the Winter 2010 YCombinator class and the team includes Eric Wu, co-founder of RentWiki.com, Sha Hwang, design technologist from Stamen Design, Vaughn Koch, program manager from Bing, and Zain Memon, a contributor to the open-source framework Django.

“The consumer real estate experience will continue to change dramatically and we believe adding this team of talented individuals will accelerate our innovation and growth,” said Pete Flint, CEO and co-founder of Trulia. “Movity brings strong engineering skills, visualizations specialists and a passion for real estate. We looked at their vision and our vision and we knew we had a perfect match.”

“We are excited to join a leader and innovator in the real estate market and contribute to a world class engineering organization,” said Eric Wu, co-founder of Movity. “I’ve been impressed what Trulia has accomplished in the past few years, and together, we want to change the way people discover local information and find a place to live.”

New Office Space

In 2010, Trulia doubled the size of its workforce and today moved in to a new 30,000 sq foot office in the heart of SOMA in downtown San Francisco. Trulia occupies multiple floors and built the space to include user experience testing rooms, 27 conference rooms and a handful of cool design elements including bike racks, a library and open collaboration spaces to foster an environment of innovation and collaboration.

“About 18 months ago we asked our employees what they wanted in a new office and it was pretty clear they wanted to be closer to public transportation, they wanted a bright open office and they wanted to be in the center of the activity downtown,” said Sami Inkinen, COO and co-founder of Trulia. “We took their feedback and we found an office that meets all our needs and allows for future growth opportunities. Moving into the new office today you could feel the sense of pride in our employees and this begins another new and exciting chapter in Trulia’s history.”

A few weeks ago, BoomTown sat down in a hipster coffee place in a hipster section of San Francisco to talk to the hipster trio of founders of AirBnB.

Which, if you think about it, is a very hipster name for what is essentially the ability to rent out your apartment, home or wack-a-doo space (such as a shoe-shaped hotel or Frank Sinatra’s Palm Springs estate).

AirBnB is an alternative to other fast-growing similar sites such as VRBO–Vacation Rentals By Owner, only with more style and niche cool.

But the former Y Combinator start-up is not without its more traditional aspects, such as a recent $7.2 million Series A funding from Greylock Partners.

Also on board, its initial Silicon Valley venture investor, Sequoia Capital, which forked over $600,000 in seed financing last year.

That came after AirBnB’s first foray for travelers to find inexpensive lodging–often no more than just a room for events, such as the U.S. Presidential conventions–turned into a wider and more pricey range of offerings, with 700,000 nights booked so far in 166 countries and 8,000 cities.

AirBnB also includes–of course–reputation and social networking elements–as well as a very slick mobile app with unusually lovely photos–and also easy booking logistics.

And, because it is also very hip to do so these days, there is a Groupon-like daily deal too. But of course there is!

It’s actually all very well done, an interesting way to find cool places to stay beyond the usual.

Here are its founders–Joe Gebbia, Nate Blecharczyk, and Brian Chesky–talking about it all in a video interview, as well as a slideshow of its Top 40 collection of its more unusual properties to rent, such as a plane stuck in a tree in Costa Rica:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101122/socializing-vacation-rentals-the-airbnb-guys-speak/feed/ 6 http://allthingsd.com/20101108/vipshop-bags-20m-to-bring-flash-sales-to-chinese-consumers/ http://allthingsd.com/20101108/vipshop-bags-20m-to-bring-flash-sales-to-chinese-consumers/#comments Mon, 08 Nov 2010 21:19:51 +0000 Jonathan Shieber http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=32164 Chinese venture capitalists are buying into the country’s “flash sales” membership-based retail websites, as online shoppers in the country get a taste of steep discounts on the gilded life through offerings from retailers like newly funded start-up Vipshop.

The Beijing-based company has raised $20 million from DCM and Sequoia Capital China in its first round of venture funding. The capital will enable the company to expand its business offering brand-name clothes, accessories, makeup and home furnishings through time-sensitive online discounted offers.

The company has 1.5 million members across China and is one of a handful of start-ups taking the model popularized in the U.S. by companies such as Groupon Inc. and Gilt Groupe Inc., European companies like Spanish internet retailers BuyVip GmbH and Privalia Venta Directa S.L., or the French site Vente Privee, which is backed by Summit Partners LLC.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101108/vipshop-bags-20m-to-bring-flash-sales-to-chinese-consumers/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101108/making-3-d-glasses-fashionable/ http://allthingsd.com/20101108/making-3-d-glasses-fashionable/#comments Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:14:55 +0000 Lauren Goode http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=32152 3-D glasses are going in the direction of high fashion.

In recent days, both Gucci and Calvin Klein Inc. unveiled high-style 3-D glasses with price tags of $225 and $180, respectively. Now eyewear and apparel maker Oakley Inc., is diving into the third dimension with the release of a $120 3-D version of its popular Gascan model of sunglasses.

The glasses can be used for watching 3-D content on 3-D TV screens in the home and in the theater, except on IMAX and Dolby 3-D Digital Cinema screens.

But while the Oakley glasses combine style with 3-D technology, the glasses aren’t entirely multi-purpose–meaning consumers might not want to use them in both the 3-D theater and, say, on the ski slopes.

“You can use them outdoors, but they’re not optimized for outdoor use,” says Scott Smith, category manager for Oakley’s 3-D Optics. “We optimize our standard Oakley sunglasses for use outdoors. The light transmission in 3-D glasses is different. You’re going to get 40 to 50 percent light transmission with 3-D glasses.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101108/making-3-d-glasses-fashionable/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101006/like-boomtown-said-cisco-announces-consumer-telepresence/ http://allthingsd.com/20101006/like-boomtown-said-cisco-announces-consumer-telepresence/#comments Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:37:34 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=35002

In a post last week, BoomTown wrote that Cisco would introduce a consumer telepresence product.

It did today in San Francisco at a press event. It is called, inexplicably, “Umi” telepresence.

I’ll be honest, it sounds like the kind of sushi I typically refuse to eat, because I am not as adventurous as I like to pretend I am.

Actually, it seems to be a variation on you-me.

Get it? You and me and telepresence. As in “Star Trek” for non-geeks.

According to Wikipedia, here are some other definitions for the word:

“Umi may refer to: Umi, ‘sea’ in Japanese language; UMI, Universal Mobile Interface; Umi, Fukuoka, a town in Japan; Umi-a-Liloa, the king of the island of Hawaii; Umi Ryuzaki, a character in the fictional manga series ‘Magic Knight Rayearth’ by CLAMP.”

“Connect with a touch of the button,” is the motto for the giant Silicon Valley networking company for Umi.

And, frankly, I wish I could have telepresenced from my bed at home with it.

You can, using Umi with your existing high-definition television and high-speed broadband. It’s in three parts: A camera, a remote control and, ugh, yet another set-top box to pile on the rest on the shelf in your home living room, as you can see below.

Cisco said the device is scheduled to be available to consumers on November 14 in Best Buy (BBY) Magnolia Home Theater stores, as well as at bestbuy.com and umi.cisco.com “for the suggested retail price of $599 with a monthly fee of $24.99 for unlimited ?mi calls, video messaging and video storage.”

At the short and sweet event, Cisco execs touted their entry into the crowded consumer video-conferencing arena.

“It’s all about tasting the chocolate,” said Cisco exec Gina Clark about her box of Umi, which will work with Google Voice Chat–but not Skype and Apple (AAPL) iChat yet.

It also has the seal of approval from Oprah Winfrey, who will doubtlessly use it in some Oprah manner on her talk show.

Clark mentions tasting the chocolate several more times to knock the point home that if you try it, you’ll like it.

I can’t believe I ate the whole Umi!

Now, Cisco–which really is obsessed with the chocolate metaphor today–is making me have a chomp in a demo.

And, while I am no reviewer, it is pretty sweet, and looks great, well beyond what is available via Internet video chat.

Until the inevitable shaky video appears, here is the full press release from Cisco (CSCO):

Cisco umi Press Release

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101006/like-boomtown-said-cisco-announces-consumer-telepresence/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20101006/netflix-adds-another-studio-sony-agrees-to-window/ http://allthingsd.com/20101006/netflix-adds-another-studio-sony-agrees-to-window/#comments Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:35:46 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=24207 More movement from Netflix as it transitions from discs to digital: A  distribution deal with Sony that reduces its access to DVDs in exchange for lower fees and more rights to stream movies to your home.

Netflix (NFLX) wouldn’t release details about the pact, and hasn’t put out a press release announcing it, as it had with earlier deals with Time Warner’s (TWX) Warner Bros, GE’s (GE) Universal and News Corp.’s (NWS) 20th Century Fox.

But spokesman Steve Swasey confirmed that Netflix and Sony have reached another “28-day” arrangement, similar to the ones Netflix has reached with the other three studios.

Swasey wouldn’t release other details, but we can guess that the deal follows the pattern established with the precedent Netflix set in its January deal with Warner: Netflix agrees not to rent Sony’s (SNE) movies for the first 28 days after they go on sale. In return, it will pay the studio a reduced fee when it does rent the discs, and will get more movies to offer via its growing Web streaming service.

This seems like a win-win for the both sides: The studios get to wring every last penny out of their DVD business, and Netflix gets to build up the business it really cares about–delivering movies to your home via the Web.

But analyst Rich Greenfield, who wrote about the Sony deal in a note published Tuesday (registration required), says these deals have only been good for Netflix: Its costs have gone down, and its subscriber base has increased, but the studios have continued to see their DVD sales slip. “Clear victory for Netflix,” he writes.

His logic:

“* The studios have essentially played right into Netflix Founder and CEO Reed Hasting’s plan to reduce DVD costs to fund his company’s aggressive digital media rights acquisition plan.
* Netflix is rapidly bringing down its physical [cost of goods sold] by reaching delayed release window deals with studios and using fresher digital content to shift consumer behavior to streaming, reducing the number of DVDs utilized per customer per month (lowering its mailing costs).
* We suspect the Netflix window needed to be substantially longer than 28 days to justify the price reduction the studios have given Netflix – meaning a six month window might have impacted Netflix subscriber trends, whereas 28 days simply has not. Unfortunately studios were more focused on bolstering sell-through, which is largely complete within the first month of a DVD’s release, rather than damaging the long-term prospects of Netflix.
* Netflix continues to aggressively purchase digital movie rights having recently acquired rights to Relativity Media content and EPIX content, with Starz content increasingly important for Netflix to renew (at far higher costs) when their current agreement ends in 12 months.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101006/netflix-adds-another-studio-sony-agrees-to-window/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20100929/exclusive-cisco-to-unveil-an-affordable-home-telepresence-product-for-consumers/ http://allthingsd.com/20100929/exclusive-cisco-to-unveil-an-affordable-home-telepresence-product-for-consumers/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:01:18 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=34421

Cisco, the networking giant, is making yet another big step into the consumer space, with the introduction next week of an inexpensive home telepresence product for personal use.

Consumer or Home TelePresence, sources said, might be launched with Comcast (CMCSK) and Verizon (VZ). It is not clear if AT&T is involved.

The cost for a small unit could be as low as $200, but that price would be heavily subsidized. Another source said a $500 price point was also possible with fewer hooks.

The big selling point: The high-definition quality is supposed to be very good. Cisco (CSCO) will use this selling point to contrast it to what will be its big competitor: Internet telephony and video-calling giant Skype.

With it, presumably, people can interact in front of a television set with distant relatives and friends.

Cisco already has a big telepresence business aimed at the corporate meeting market.

But its deployment is complex and requires expensive installation of large pieces of equipment.

Notes Cisco’s Web site:

With Cisco TelePresence:

Scheduling is easy–no IT support required
Launching a meeting is as simple as making a phone call.
In-room controls are intuitive–collaboration applications are plug and play
Participants can meet in many rooms at once-up to 48 locations in one meeting
Users can easily bring in collaboration applications like Cisco WebEx Meeting Center
Existing SD or HD videoconferencing systems can be easily integrated.

Yesterday, BoomTown reported that Cisco will be holding a press event next Wednesday morning in San Francisco.

The invite reads: “Come see a new Cisco consumer experience at an exclusive media event, hosted by Chairman and CEO John Chambers.”

As I wrote, reflecting speculation: “What could the new consumer product be?

Perhaps Cisco has built its own version of Apple (AAPL) TV. Or perhaps a consumer-aimed home version of telepresence?”

It turns out Door #2 was right!

This is all part of Cisco’s ongoing attempt to push into the consumer space, offering a variety of products.

Cisco’s PR spokesperson declined to comment.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100929/exclusive-cisco-to-unveil-an-affordable-home-telepresence-product-for-consumers/feed/ 8 http://allthingsd.com/20100928/cisco-does-doobies-so-whats-next-in-the-consumer-space/ http://allthingsd.com/20100928/cisco-does-doobies-so-whats-next-in-the-consumer-space/#comments Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:15:35 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=34288

Yesterday, BoomTown made a brief stop at what felt like an underground bunker in a hotel in San Francisco to see the Doobie Brothers.

Yes, the legendary band of indelible hit songs such as “Black Water” and “China Grove” and misspent youth way, way back in the day.

Except the group, which was founded in San Jose, Calif., in 1970, was performing at a Cisco (CSCO) television studio down south in Silicon Valley to launch its first album in a decade, called “World Gone Crazy.”

Cisco–founded in San Jose too, but in 1984–put on a 90-minute concert by the Doobie Brothers that was broadcast to 11 U.S. cities, helped by AT&T (T) and Marriott (MAR).

It was an odd event, because we were watching a concert on a big screen in what felt like a place more suited for a corporate retreat.

Still, in its ongoing attempt to push its telepresence technology into the consumer space, such a thing has become more typical for Cisco.

That’s why it will be interesting to see what the tech giant will announce at an event it is having on October 6.

The invite reads: “Come see a new Cisco consumer experience at an exclusive media event, hosted by Chairman and CEO John Chambers.”

What could the new consumer product be?

Perhaps Cisco has built its own version of Apple (AAPL) TV. Or perhaps a consumer-aimed home version of telepresence?

Until we all find out, here is a short video I did at the event yesterday:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100928/cisco-does-doobies-so-whats-next-in-the-consumer-space/feed/ 2 http://allthingsd.com/20100928/aol-officially-adds-5min-to-its-roster-next/ http://allthingsd.com/20100928/aol-officially-adds-5min-to-its-roster-next/#comments Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:25:52 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=24003 Here’s the official press release announcing AOL’s acquisition of 5Min Media. Sources familiar with the transaction tell me it’s an all-cash deal at the high end of the $50 million to $65 million range I reported earlier today. So let’s call it $65 million.

That’s a nice outcome for 5Min’s team, and for its investors, who put in $13 million, including Globespan Capital Partners and Spark Capital. (I mistakenly identified Scott Kurnit as an angel investor in the company. He was not.) Interesting that AOL (AOL), which has extensive reach already, felt it needed to invest in a distribution play, but you can read CEO Tim Armstrong’s explanation below.

And perhaps someone can ask him about it if he makes another acquisition announcement in the near future.

AOL ACQUIRES 5MIN MEDIA, WEB’S LARGEST VIDEO CONTENT SYNDICATION PLATFORM

Combination of 5min Media and AOL’s Video Capabilities Creates Powerful
End-to-End Offering

New York, NY, September 28, 2010 – AOL Inc. [NYSE: AOL] today announced it has acquired 5min Media, the Web’s largest video syndication platform.* The acquisition allows AOL to significantly expand its consumer offering of contextually relevant, high-quality video across its sites, increasing the AOL Network’s appeal to advertisers and is expected to further enhance the distribution and monetization of AOL-produced original video content throughout the Web.** Deal terms were not disclosed.

“Our acquisition of 5min Media is the latest in a number of steps we have taken this year to better position AOL to capture the growing video opportunity on the Web,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AOL. “AOL is building a video ecosystem for the next decade. 5min Media is the perfect complement to our powerful video capabilities — it provides a missing piece in the AOL value chain that completes our end-to-end video offering from content creation through syndication and distribution to the consumer experience and monetization.”

“AOL and 5min Media share the same excitement about the direction our industry is taking, and our complementary video capabilities make us a compelling fit and an attractive combination for content creators and publishers,” said Ran Harnevo, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, 5min Media. “We’ve seen rapid and successful growth as an independent organization and becoming part of AOL is a natural next step. We’re confident that AOL’s organizational horsepower, combined with the vast library, audience and syndication capabilities 5min Media offers, present compelling opportunities for AOL as well as the content creators we work with and the publishers we serve.”

Leading Video Syndication Network and Library to Enhance AOL’s Properties

5min Media is the world’s leading video syndication network with a library of more than 200,000 categorized, tagged and rated videos from more than 1,000 of the world’s largest media companies and professional independent video producers. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City with offices in Tel Aviv, 5min Media has been named the largest U.S. independent video property by comScore, with more than 20 million unique viewers and more than 130 million video streams (including ad and content videos) in the U.S. in August 2010. 5min Media’s growing network of 800 partner sites allows content creators to reach this audience of targeted viewers across 21 different verticals, including six verticals – Home, Food, Beauty / Fashion, Health, Travel and Pets – that lead their categories, according to comScore Video Metrix, August 2010. VideoSeed, 5min Media’s proprietary semantic technology, contextually matches the most relevant videos with a partner site’s text content to enhance the consumer experience and increase monetization rates.

AOL has already begun to integrate 5min Media’s video content on its sites through a commercial agreement executed prior to the acquisition. “With 5min Media we’ll be able to add more video inventory to our pages. Importantly, we’ll also be able to identify video content holes among our sites, tap our StudioNow capabilities to fill those needs and create a truly ‘demand informed’ video library,” Armstrong said.

Combination Completes Next Step in AOL’s Value Chain

With the addition of 5min Media, AOL will significantly increase its consumer offering in video programming and connect consumers with high-quality video. In January, AOL acquired StudioNow, the premier online platform for quality video content creation and distribution. With StudioNow, AOL has formed a fully functional platform to produce high-quality video content in a rapid, cost-effective and scalable way for both AOL as well as third-party publishers. In addition, AOL is forging exciting new partnerships to provide relevant content to specific audiences, including partnering with: The Ellen DeGeneres Show; Marlo Thomas; The Jonas Group and MGX Lab to found Cambio (www.cambio.com); and A Squared Entertainment LLC to create children’s content featuring Warren Buffett, Gisele Bündchen, Martha Stewart and the late Carl Sagan.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100928/aol-officially-adds-5min-to-its-roster-next/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100921/ladylike-fun-and-games-boomtown-visits-sugar-hq-for-an-update/ http://allthingsd.com/20100921/ladylike-fun-and-games-boomtown-visits-sugar-hq-for-an-update/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:42:23 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=33974

It’s been a dog’s age since BoomTown revisited Sugar Inc., the scrappy women-focused content start-up run by Brian and Lisa Sugar.

I first paid a visit to the San Francisco headquarters of Sugar three years ago to check out the flagship PopSugar (celebs), GeekSugar (tech), CasaSugar (home) and YumSugar (food) sites.

Since then, it has moved into a range of other arenas, via acquisition, such as:

ShopStyle.com for Web commerce; FreshGuide, which makes women-aimed city guides that show off daily offers in a wide rage of arenas, such as beauty, health and fitness; and video shopping start-up Shopflick, which is now a Los Angeles-based branded entertainment unit called Sugar Digital Entertainment.

And, most recently, in mid-July, it launched a fashion game on Facebook called Retail Therapy. where you run your own fashion boutique.

While mine would be all jeans, T-shirts and Puma Mostros, it is an interesting idea from a content company, injecting into the content model doses of virality, commerce and user passion.

And, of course, Sugar has launched the requisite Apple (AAPL) iPhone and iPad apps.

Last summer, Sugar also cut its ties with NBC Universal by buying back its shares and got a Series C funding of $16 million from Sequoia Capital.

Sequoia has been an existing venture investor, having put $5 million into Sugar in late 2006. NBC invested $10 million in 2007.

And while Sugar has had serious acquisition flirtations with Yahoo (YHOO), it currently remains on the road to building a new media content company of the future from scratch.

Here’s a talk I had with Brian Sugar last week about that and more, as well as a tour of Sugar’s office.

Also below, a very funny video called “The Zoeinator,” which Sugar did for Rachel Zoe’s Zoe Report, as an example of its branded content efforts:

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100921/ladylike-fun-and-games-boomtown-visits-sugar-hq-for-an-update/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100818/liveblogging-the-geo-location-announcement-oh-the-facebook-places-that-youll-go-and-perhaps-foursquares-dennis-crowley/ http://allthingsd.com/20100818/liveblogging-the-geo-location-announcement-oh-the-facebook-places-that-youll-go-and-perhaps-foursquares-dennis-crowley/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 23:28:42 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=32420

BoomTown motored on down the lovely Highway 280 in Silicon Valley to Facebook to hear execs talk about a new geo-location feature the powerful social networking site is rolling out today.

And, the new name of the service, which will be deeply integrated into its current update system, as I reported earlier, will be “Places.”

The service seems to be basic and useful–it is reviewed here by Walt Mossberg–allowing people to post their location on the Wall of their Facebook profile, much as you might a photo or video.

There will be no games, no mayors and no special discounts either in Facebook Places–just plain and simple checking in and, presumably, taking names.

Privacy is a big focus of the launch of Places, which will allow users to decline to be placed by others.

The $100 million question is how much Facebook will allow the integration of other competing services including Foursquare.

A lot, it seems, as sources said Foursquare Founder and CEO Dennis Crowley was invited to appear for the announcements, perhaps to minimize the idea that this is a Foursquare-killer.

It’s not. Today.

4:30 pm PT: Of course, I and a badillion other reporters arrived on time, to 1050 Page Mill Road in Palo Alto, Calif. in a mass of media force that would probably better be deployed on more weighty topics than the particulars of checking in from some hip dive bar in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco.

After some waiting, we were finally bussed–or perhaps the better word is geo-located–to the actual HQ of Facebook nearby, and shepherded (just like sheep that we are!) into its cafeteria.

Except it had been duded up like a tiki lounge with palm trees and a driftwood stage. I felt as though I was suddenly on an episode of “Gilligan’s Island.” Cue Ginger for her big song number with the coconut bra!

Hey, Skipper…

5:18 pm: That skipper would be CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who was–as usual–dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and was endearingly awkward as always. It’s kind of touching that Zuckerberg still tries to have the just-us-guys posture, despite all the fame and fortune.

He quickly announced Facebook Places, across the U.S. tomorrow, on an Apple (AAPL) iPhone app and a mobile Web site.

He talked about deciding to finally launch Places after a dinner out with his girlfriend, when, deploying a test version, they realized another Facebook exec, Chris Cox and his fiance were nearby at another restaurant.

It was an earth-shaking moment, implied Zuckerberg.

Ahem, knock, knock…that’s Foursquare! Have you heard of it?

Yes, Facebook has been ogling the hot New York location start-up for a year, which is precisely why we are all here.

5:28 pm: Michael Sharon, the product manager of Places gave us a little run-through of the service, which was about what you would expect.

Foursquare except cleaner. Booyah except no games. Gowalla except, well, not Gowalla.

What’s important is that it is very integrated into Facebook’s current features, such as the Wall and status updates. Which is the right thing to do since Facebook has no business being all trendy.

The plains are covered with the bodies of pioneers, as they say, so what Facebook Places is, essentially, is a fast follow.

Sharon moved onto privacy, the big gorilla in the room. You have to opt-in and agree and click here and default to off and you can only tag your friends and you can also block them too.

Also, per Woody Allen’s “Bananas,” all Facebook citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside, so we can check.

Next, lots of info about APIs, so partners can also be part of Facebook’s geo-locating universe.

Up trotted Gowalla’s CTO and Co-founder Scott Raymond, who showed off Gowalla and Facebook integration.

Then a Foursquare exec–not Crowley, who has apparently checked in at a Chipolte in New York at the time of the places launch–loped up to say how great it all is. Just great! Really! Frankly, what else would the Foursquares say at this point.

Next: Yelp dude. Great! Just great! Integration! Check-in and pull your Facebook friends into the Yelp app.

Of course, it would not be a set without Booyah’s Keith Lee. Loves it! Fun! Just great!

This felt like a slow-moving version of invasion of the geo-location snatchers, a parade of glassy-eyed hostages, some scurvy mates walking the platform plank. Aaaaarrrr.

5:50 pm: Finally, Facebook’s product head Chris Cox, who is perhaps one of the more fetching geeks out there, bounded onstage to be all fetching and smart.

He talked about places like home, work and, um, bars. Well, actually, community locations, quoting Ray Oldenburg.

I was honestly not really listening to him at all, because I was riveted on his new haircut, which is just like the buzzed one Vince got on “Entourage” this season.

Errant thought: Those guys on “Entourage” would never check in from a bar! They are totally busy getting their groove on with the ladies–even Johnny Drama–and chillaxing with the doobies and tequila!

When I checked in again mentally, Cox was still chattering away about some glowing phone that tells you everything that happened in that bar forever and ever, since everyone was checking in and memorializing the place over time.

Good god, isn’t it enough that Facebook has all those drunkey-drunk photos from college students nationwide.

No! It wants it all! Yay, all our our drunkey-drunk moments will now be preserved in check-ins for all eternity!

Honey, remember when I ended up in the gutter here? Fun times for our grandkids to unearth one day!

5:58 pm: The Skipper Zuckerberg was back to moderate the Q&A.

Privacy questions about making private places public. If a lot of people are there, it becomes public.

Next: What up with monetization with deals? Zuckerberg notes that Places is at its starting point and “certainly you can imagine these things in the future.”

There was a question about how Places started. Well, IMHO, the moment when Facebook saw Foursquare’s innovation and freaked out.

A very goofy question about what happens when drunkey-drunk places shut down and all those memories are gone, which made me wonder if the reporter asking was drunkey-drunk.

“That’s not a problem we can solve,” said Cox.

Good answer.

Now, the Skipper wants to show us a Facebook custom, which made me suddenly nervous. Sacrifice of the media? No, just some switch-pulling thing.

There was apparently also another tradition–for a six-year-old company, that is–of hitting some gong.

Aha, it’s “The Gong Show.”

Geo-locate that.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100818/liveblogging-the-geo-location-announcement-oh-the-facebook-places-that-youll-go-and-perhaps-foursquares-dennis-crowley/feed/ 8 http://allthingsd.com/20100615/the-summer-to-go-on-a-power-diet/ http://allthingsd.com/20100615/the-summer-to-go-on-a-power-diet/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:40:45 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/?p=1251 As temperatures climb to their highest levels, so, too, do the cost of home utilities bills. So how do you at least keep your energy-sucking electronics in check?

Summer months are the most expensive electricity usage months of the year, according to a study from the U.S. Energy Information Association, a government agency. So whether you’re trying to save money or attempting to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, several technologies can make the task a bit easier. This week, I’ve prepared a run down of some of the many devices and websites that can help you to reduce power consumption.

Intelligent Power Strips

Call it standby power, vampire power or phantom power: When your appliances are plugged into the wall and not in use, they’re still sucking up energy. To solve this problem, some people go around their house unplugging electronics, but then they have to go around plugging these in again when they need to use them. And certain machines, like TiVos (TIVO), for example, will reboot every time they’re unplugged and plugged, which takes significantly more time than turning on a lamp after plugging it in again.

Smart strips like the HP Monster Digital PowerCenter let you choose which plugged-in devices stay on.

A number of special power strips have come out within the year that are designed to simplify this process by ensuring devices don’t draw power while plugged in. The $40 Smart Strip Power Strip from Bits Ltd. (bitsltd.net) has either seven or 10 outlets, depending on the model. These include three red outlets for products you never want to turn off and one blue “control” outlet. Electronics plugged into the remaining white outlets stay on or shut down depending on what’s plugged into the blue outlet. So if your computer is plugged into a blue outlet and you shut it down, your speakers, scanner, printer and monitor would also turn off as long as they’re plugged into the Smart Strip’s white outlets.

A similar product, in which plugged-in electronics take their cue from a control outlet, is the $50 HP (HPQ) Monster Digital PowerCenter with GreenPower (http://3.ly/3hXF). This strip, which has six three-pronged outlets, also includes two surge-protected phone connections for fax lines or modems.

The iGo Green Power Smart Tower.

The $80 Power Smart Tower with iGo Green Technology (http://3.ly/C7ce) includes four outlets that are always on and four that power down when anything that’s plugged in turns off. It also has two built-in USB power ports for charging via USB.

Track More, Waste Less

When people go on diets, they’re often told to write down everything they eat so they’re more conscious of what they’re ingesting every day. A study by the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford showed a 5% to 15% reduction in power consumption just by providing energy information to consumers.

One tool that could help you trace your electricity usage is the Consumer Electronics Association’s Energy Calculator (http://3.ly/gp2M). People fill in data on how much they use specific devices—like “digital television, 21 to 39 inches” or “notebook PC”— in their home per day or per month. The site calculates typical watts per device and figures out the energy-consumption costs for each over the period of a month and over a year, and then adds up the totals for each device. The idea is to let people see how small usage adjustments can have a big monetary impact over time.

If you’d rather not do the work of inputting data on your power usage, the Google PowerMeter (google.com/powermeter) might be up your alley. It digitally tracks your usage patterns using meter data supplied by your utility company and its results can be accessed from any Web browser or your iGoogle homepage. A Google representative says this service is gradually rolling out in tests with utility companies. Currently, 10 utilities are partnered with PowerMeter in five countries, including the U.S.

If your utility company isn’t one of the 10 that work with Google’s (GOOG) PowerMeter, you can buy a special gadget that monitors consumption, including some that physically hook into your fuse box. A list can be found here (http://3.ly/Un3h). One relatively less expensive device from Current Cost is $169.

Before You Buy

If you’re buying new electronics soon, you may want to consider a product’s energy efficiency before buying it.

The U.S. Department of Energy has a Web database of Energy Star compliant products, which meet requirements set by the DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (http://3.ly/SSsy).

Information on the Consumer Electronics Association website (http://3.ly/4x9P) helps people decide whether to replace or repair a product, from an efficiency standpoint.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

Email Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100615/the-summer-to-go-on-a-power-diet/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100312/index-invests-25-million-in-sonos-plus-a-video-interview-with-vc-mike-volpi/ http://allthingsd.com/20100312/index-invests-25-million-in-sonos-plus-a-video-interview-with-vc-mike-volpi/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:00:57 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=25424 Earlier this week, BoomTown had lunch with Michelangelo “Mike” Volpi, the high-profile tech exec who turned into a venture capitalist recently at Index Ventures.

We also did a video interview (see below) about his new life as an investor, based in London, although Volpi managed to leave out the big news.

That would be a just-inked $25 million investment by Index from its growth equity arm in wireless home music system maker Sonos, as well as a new board seat there for Volpi. (Sonos’s hot new S5 unit is pictured here.)

In an interview this morning, Sonos CEO John MacFarlane said the money would be used for expansion at Sonos, which is just about to introduce its products to China and Japan.

“This investment is going to help us grow,” said MacFarlane. “We have wind at our back and this will help us a lot in keeping up that momentum.”

MacFarlane said the focus for Sonos, which has garnered $65 million–from BV Capital and mostly angel investors–with the Index investment included, is growth. He declined to give Sonos’s valuation in the new round.

The private company has been profitable, MacFarlane said, but its goal is to break even as it takes advantage of interest in its devices globally. Only about 35 percent of its business is now in the United States.

While running a small independent consumer electronics company is a dicey proposition, MacFarlane said Sonos is not interested in selling, as Pure Digital–maker of the Flip digital camera–did to Cisco (CSCO) a year ago for $590 million in stock.

In fact, Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Sonos, which is well known for its innovative top-line (and high-priced) music players, recently moved its business more mainstream with the introduction of the S5 unit in November.

The S5 allows control of the system via an Apple (AAPL) iPhone and only costs $399. (Here is a review of it by The Mossberg Solution’s Katie Boehret.)

The basic idea? A smart speaker paired with a smartphone.

The S5 has been a big seller and has increased product registration–when the software is activated by a user–by five times previous numbers so far, according to the company.

That could get a further boost with the April launch of the iPad, which seems perfect for controller software apps.

“The popularity of the iPhone is great for us,” said MacFarlane. “And we’ll do something great with the iPad.”

It will be nice to have a big score for Volpi, the former Cisco wunderkind. In fact, he invested in one of MacFarlane’s previous start-ups, Software.com, in 1995 when he was in charge of a variety of businesses there.

But the affable Volpi hit a bad patch recently while CEO of a much hyped but ultimately failed video service called Joost. It was that job that landed him in even hotter water.

In the wake of the decline of Joost, which he left to join Index, he was personally sued, along with Index, by its litigious co-founders over Index’s planned investment in Skype, the online telephony service they also co-founded.

Confused? Well, it was confusing.

And not the best start in the investment business for Volpi, after Index pulled out of the high-profile deal in a settlement of the lawsuits.

But, that’s “ancient history,” as Volpi said in the video interview below, which focuses on what’s next.

(News of the Index involvement in Sonos was first reported by TechCrunch earlier this week, though it did not have any details on the amount of funding.)

Although he did not mention the $25 million Sonos funding specifically in the video, Volpi does discuss his bullishness for consumer electronics.

Volpi presumably hopes others share his enthusiasm.

Here’s the video of my interview with him:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100312/index-invests-25-million-in-sonos-plus-a-video-interview-with-vc-mike-volpi/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100310/youtube-steps-cautiously-into-mobile-ads/ http://allthingsd.com/20100310/youtube-steps-cautiously-into-mobile-ads/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:39:55 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=17240 Another sign that Google is serious about wringing more money out of YouTube: It is adding ads to the video’s mobile site.

Another sign that mobile ads are still in their infancy: Google isn’t using its favorite video ad format on the YouTube ads.

Boot up your Apple (AAPL) iPhone or Android handset to m.youtube.com today and you’ll start seeing ads like these:

But while you may see banner ads on YouTube’s mobile home, search and browse pages, you won’t see ads on the clips themselves.

Those will come eventually, Shishir Mehrotra, YouTube’s director of monetization, told Advertising Age, but in the near term, it’s too difficult for the company to pull off. That’s because there are too many handsets, with different standards and requirements, to support.

That’s a bummer for the Google (GOOG) unit, since it is particularly fond of the “overlay” ads that run on the bottom third of many of its clips. Then again, mobile is still a tiny market opportunity for YouTube: The company says it serves “tens of millions of views per day,” which sounds like a lot until you consider that the main site is serving a billion views daily.

Note that YouTube doesn’t seem to be advertising yet on its specialized iPhone app. Wonder what to make of that…

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