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Twitter Acquires Software Startup, CloudHopper

We used to speculate about who would acquire Twitter, but these days Twitter seems to be the one on the acquisition front. Recently, Twitter acquired the popular iPhone app, Tweetie, and has just announced that they’ve acquired CloudHopper, the mobile software startup from Seattle, Washington.

From Twitter:

Over the last eight months we have been working with a startup called Cloudhopper to become one of the highest volume SMS programs in the world—Twitter processes close to a billion SMS tweets per month and that number is growing around the world from Indonesia to Australia, the UK, the US, and beyond.

To help us further grow and scale our SMS service, we are happy to announce the acquisition of Cloudhopper, a messaging infrastructure company that enables Twitter to connect directly to mobile carrier networks in countries all over the planet. Please join us in welcoming both Joe and Kristin to Twitter’s mobile team.

Continue reading Twitter Acquires Software Startup, CloudHopper

Clean:

PlanetSolar Boat Looks To Circumnavigate The Globe

What you see below is the amazing new PlanetSolar boat. They have been working on it for quite some time now but it is finally in the official testing stage. The boat uses MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracker) which is the electronics between solar panels and the battery. What this vessel does that others have yet to, is provide optimum placement of each solar panel by tilting (even in rough seas) to the best best angle to receive the highest amount of solar energy.

Continue reading PlanetSolar Boat Looks To Circumnavigate The Globe

Around The Web

last update: May 20, 2013

Social:

Hulu Introduces $9.95 per Month Subscription: Hulu Plus

Well, it’s here. The LA Times reports that Hulu will be making their subscription service a reality as early as May 24. Once the service is made available, you’ll still be able to get the five most recent episodes of some of your favorite shows, but access to older episodes and special features will run you $9.95 monthly.

The new service, Hulu Plus, comes as its owners (News Corp., NBC Universal, and Walt Disney Co.) pressure the 2-year old video site to bring in more revenue and lead consumers towards paying for online access to video content. But will it work? Well let’s just take a look at what people are saying:

Continue reading Hulu Introduces $9.95 per Month Subscription: Hulu Plus

Gadgets:

Skinput Uses Arm As Input Device

A student at Carnegie Mellon University and a former intern at Microsoft Research, Chris Harrison has developed a new input “device” that uses a persons palm and forearm as the “keyboard”. The new technology is being called Skinput. Harrison explains:

“People don’t love the iPhone keyboard. They use them. But they don’t love them. If you could make the iPhone keyboard as big as an arm — that would be huge. You could pretty much do a lot of what you do on your iPhone, its [like having] your iPhone on your palm.”

The device has been in development for 8 months but is not quite ready for deployment. Working alongside a Mircrosoft researcher, Dan Morris, Harrison believes the product will be available to the public in 2-7 years. Although it is currently workable the accuracy is not on point enough for it to be viable.

Continue reading Skinput Uses Arm As Input Device

Lifestyle:

New $100 Bill Released Today by U.S. Treasury

The U.S. Treasury refreshes its currency every once in a while to stay a step ahead of counterfeiters, and this time they’re refreshing the new $100 bill. The new bill will contain a security feature called Motion, where each bill will contain up to 650,000 microlenses embedded in the printing which will allow for an underlying image to shift when the bill is moved. Yep, good old Benjamin Franklin is getting a facelift and here it is (we’ll add more pics as they become available):

Continue reading New $100 Bill Released Today by U.S. Treasury

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Lifestyle:

First President George Washington Owes $300k in Library Fines

Here are some things you should know about George Washington, America’s first president. He didn’t live in the white house, he never told a lie*, he was the only president to be elected unanimously, and he still has overdue library books that carry a fine of $300,000 when adjusted for inflation.

According to CNN, on October 5, 1789 he checked out two books about international relations and parliamentary debates which were due back November 2, 1789 but were never returned. The fine at the time was two pence per day (it’s 15 cents now). At two pence per day, he’s racked up a fine of roughly $4,577 which adjusted for inflation equals about $300,000.

Continue reading First President George Washington Owes $300k in Library Fines

Social:

AT&T's Buzz.com is Now Open to the Public

Do we really need another buzz? AT&T thinks so, and today, they’ve opened up Buzz.com to the public. Buzz is a location-based search and review site for businesses where users can rate, review and favorite their local hot spots. As if we didn’t have enough ways to do this already (Google Places, Yelp, 4 Square, etc.)

Unlike Google and some of the others, Buzz is integrated with Facebook Connect and will likely soon integrate with Twitter as well. That means you’ll be able to send out a question or get a recommendation on the platforms you already use. Easy peasy!
Continue reading AT&T's Buzz.com is Now Open to the Public

Clean:

Texas Town Builds Largest Battery in the U.S.

Everything’s bigger in Texas, right? Well, in keeping with their motto, one Texas town, has built the largest battery the United States has ever seen. Dubbed BOB (Big Old Battery), the NaS (sodium sulfer) battery, which is currently charging, can store up to four megawatts of power for eight hours. That’s roughly the energy needed to fully power 4,000 homes per megawatt-hour (MWh).

The town of Presidio in West Texas only has one link the the U.S. Power Grid and that transmission line is over 60 years old. That’s why they sunk $25 million into building this thing and promised another $44 million to build a second, 60-mile transmission line by 2012. BOB  will be used as emergency backup for the numerous power outages in the area which are caused by the line going down quite frequently.

Continue reading Texas Town Builds Largest Battery in the U.S.

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