Summary: Facebook Buys Parakey, Google Acquires Image-America, U.S. Deploying 1st Robotic Aerial Drones, IGA gets $25M to take on Microsoft & Google, Go2Web20.net, Google 700MHz spectrum bid, Researchers: multi-gigabit Wi-Fi, UK teen stuffed eBay PS2, Think gets $60M, Microsoft releases Windows Home Server RTM.

The Word for the day: Romans 3.21-22 - But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,

Facebook Buys Parakey

Social networking site Facebook has bought internet start-up, Parakey, run by two of the co-creators of the popular web browser, Mozilla Firefox. Parakey is described as a platform that "bridges the gap between information on the web and the desktop".  As part of the deal, which is for an undisclosed sum, Mozilla Firefox founders Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt will help to develop the Facebook site. A notice on Parakey's site says it hopes to makes consumers' lives easier. "Computers are frustrating," the site says. "Creating documents, finding files, sharing information - why do everyday things still seem so tedious and counterintuitive?" "Give your computer the bird," it concludes.

Facebook: Facebook was started in 2004 by then-undergraduate Mark Zuckerberg as a social site for fellow Harvard University students and later opened up to users of all ages. Facebook, once largely confined to American colleges, has grown its audience by more than 500% in the last six months - making it more popular in Britain than in the US. Facebook allows people to list their personal details online and communicate with other people through the website. The site's appeal stems from the controls it gives users over who sees what personal details on each member's profile pages.

Firefox: has been downloaded more than 300 million times by computer users worldwide and is the second most widely used web browser behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Parakey's founders see their browser operating system as a platform on which other applications could operate. Facebook has recently decided to let hundreds of independent developers build software within the Facebook site, turning Facebook itself into a kind of operating system for internet users.

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Google Acquires Image-America

Google acquired ImageAmerica, a company, as they say, building high resolution cameras for the collection of aerial imagery. Google hint that they expect this data to be rolled out in Google Earth/ Maps in the future. Already, ImageAmerica provided hi-res New Orleans imagery to Google following Hurricane Katrina. Image-America.com now shows the usual semi-blank acquired page, but Archive.org stored an older version I’ve mirrored here. After Panoramio, PeakStream, Zenter, Feedburner, GrandCentral and Postini, this is the seventh Google acquisition just this and last month. I suppose by now, a typical Google lobby small talk starts with, So, when were you acquired?

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U.S. Deploying 1st Robotic Aerial Drones

It looks like the unmanned aerial drones now on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan will soon be getting a lot more company, with the U.S. reportedly set to deploy its first full-on "robotic" drone squadron. According to the AP, the US will be deploying an unspecified number of MQ-9 Reaper "hunter-killer" drones, which are about the size of a jet fighter and are able to fly at speeds of 300 mph and reach altitudes of 50,000 feet -- each of which can be controlled from a base in Nevada. While further details are obviously scarce, the drones will apparently be deployed to Afghanistan first, with the fleet expected to expand to Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring.

MQ9-Reaper: The MQ-9 Reaper (originally the RQ-9 Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for use by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy, and the British Royal Air Force. The MQ-9 is the Air Force's first purpose-designed hunter-killer UAV designed for long endurance high altitude surveillance.[1]
The MQ-9 system utilizes a larger and more capable aircraft than the earlier MQ-1 Predator, however, the MQ-9 can use MQ-1's ground systems, making MQ-1 "upgradable" to the MQ-9. The MQ-9 design utilizes a 950 shaft-horsepower turboprop engine in place of Predator's 119 hp piston engine. The increase in power allows the Reaper to carry 15 times more ordnance and cruise at three times the speed of the MQ-1.[1] The U.S. Navy is referring to its MQ-9s as "Mariners".

Weapons Specs: the Reaper can carry 14 of the air-to-ground weapons, or four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs. 8 Hellfires, 2 500-pound JDAMs, and 2 Sidewinder a2a missiles. However, the aircraft can also carry laser guided bombs and other types of ordnance (up to 3,000 lbs worth).

USAF officials plan to fit the Reaper with the 250 lb SDB's, enabling it to precision strike 16 targets on 1 mission. You can compare that to the B-2's capability (albeit with smaller ordinance) during the conflict in Kosovo.

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IGA gets $25M to take on Microsoft & Google

IGA Worldwide, one of the in-game advertising network operators John Gaudiosi wrote about in his What Works piece for us, Wednesday announced that it has raised $25 million from an assortment of public and private investors. GE/NBC Universal’s Peacock Equity and KTB Ventures led the series B round along with existing investors Easton Capital, Morgenthaler Ventures, Intel Capital and DN Capital.
IGA isn't the only player watching those trends; some of the biggest names in digital marketing are betting heavily on the genre.
Last year Microsoft (MSFT) bought Massive, the leading in-game ad broker, for a reported $200 million. Earlier this year Google (GOOG) snapped up in-game ad shop Adscape Media for $23 million. Massive and other ad brokers, like IGA, allow agencies to buy space in many games at once, much as they would TV time.

Meanwhile, major agencies like Ogilvy, Omnicom (OMC), and Publicis (PUB) are focusing more on games. Publicis has recently expanded its games ad group from two people to 10. These moves aren't just for bragging rights; Parks Associates estimates that the in-game ad market will be worth more than $600 million in three years, up from $120 million last year.

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Go2Web20.net

This is a web 2.0 directory listing all popular web 2.0 sites on the internet. It was founded by Orli Yakuel and Eyal Shahar. Orli is a Web 2.0 Analyst at AOL/Relegence and the editor of the popular blog go2web2.blogspot.com. Eyal is VP R&D and User Experience specialist in Mantis ltd. this is an Isreali company. The site listing is quite comprehensive and the beauty about it is that it shows you the logo of the web 2.0 companies and a brief summary of what they do. Go2Web20 is sponsored by Amazon Web Services, Techcrunch and Listio. We think it is cool. Please check it out at www.go2web20.net. You might find a very useful web 2.0 service there. Keep up the good work Orli and Yakuel.
Web 2.0 Definition: Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes.

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Google 700MHz spectrum bid

Not that we weren't expecting anything less, but it looks like the bidding in the upcoming 700MHz wireless spectrum auction is set to heat up, with Google now saying that it'll join in on the action, although only if certain conditions are met. Specifically, Google is asking for the FCC to ensure that the spectrum allows for "open applications, open devices, open networks, and open services" -- demands that seem to be pretty much in line with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's recent statements on the matter. If the FCC follows through on that, Google says it's prepared to put up some $4.6 billion for the wireless spectrum. Well, there goes our plans.

Google conditions for bidding:

        Open applications: consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;

        Open devices: consumers should be able to utilize their handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they                 prefer;

        Open services: third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis,         based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and

        Open networks: third parties (like Internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a                 700 MHz licensee's wireless network.

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Researchers: multi-gigabit Wi-Fi

A research group from the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) at Georgia Tech has recently released a study demonstrating high-speed wireless data transfers at a staggering 15Gbps at a one meter range. The system is still in its infancy, as data rates drop off steeply with just a little added distance (10Gbps at two meters, 5Gbps at five meters), but the possibilities for speeds of this sort are promising. At 10Gbps, researches say you could download the entire DVD of Beaches to a cellphone in five seconds, although the ultra-high frequency 60GHz band used for transmission is unable to pass through human skin, creating line-of-sight issues which engineers have yet to unkink. The standard, which will be called 802.15.3C, will probably be used for Personal Access Networks, like content kiosks, where all data is swapped in direct line-of-sight. Plans for the future include lowering power consumption, increasing bandwidth, and downloading all nine seasons of the X-Files to a BlackBerry in one minute.

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UK teen stuffed eBay PS2

A young man in the UK got a serious shock when the PS2 that he'd won on eBay arrived at his home in Aylsham, Norfolk. The game system -- which he'd paid £95 for -- arrived without the two games promised by the seller, but with £44,000, or about $90,378. The boy and his family turned the money over to police, who are holding it until late September under the UK's "Proceeds of Crime Act" while they investigate the case. A spokesman for eBay described the situation as "somewhat unusual," while the boy was overheard mumbling that he "Would have rather gotten Gran Turismo 3." In related news, the cast of Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels said that they would "Find that box no matter what kind of uniquely British hi-jinks are required."

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Think gets $60M

Think the electric car is dead? Think again. Norwegian electric car company Think has raised $60 million in its latest round from U.S. and European investors, including Silicon Valley's DFJ Element and Capricorn Investment Group. Other U.S. investors include RockPort Capital Partners and Wintergreen Advisers. Think now has $85 million in the bank to begin production later this year of the City, a two-seater urban runabout that can go about 112 miles (180 kilometers) on a single charge with a top speed of 62 mph (100 kph) with its current battery. The zippy little EV should get even zippier: Think has cut a $43 million deal with Tesla Motors to buy a version of its lithium-ion battery packs that power the Silicon Valley electric car company's forthcoming Roadster super car. Think will initially sell the City in Norway before expanding to other European markets in 2008. The company hopes to bring the car to the U.S. sometime in 2009.

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Microsoft releases Windows Home Server  RTM

If you've been itching to get your hands on a new flavor of Windows, or if you're just sick and tired of being teased by that release candidate, the wait for Microsoft's Windows Home Server is drawing to a close. Reportedly, the firm has released the software to manufacturing, where it should flow down and hit pre-fabricated boxes "in late September and early October." According to Joel Sider, senior product manager, the move to RTM means that the company has "wrapped up WHS and handed it off to its internal distribution teams and hardware partners." Additionally, Iomega and Fujitsu-Siemens were added to the list of OEM partners that already included HP, Gateway, LaCie, and Medion. Notably, there won't be a great many alterations in the final release compared to RC1, as the main change stated (aside from squashing a few stray bugs) was that the "domain for remote access is now homeserver.com." Hold tight folks, Windows Home Server will be coming your way soon, and the brigade will be led by HP's forthcoming MediaSmart Server.

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The Word for the day

Romans 3.21-22 - But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,

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