App Analytics Firm Swrve Raises $6.25 Million

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Swrve has announced that it has raised $6.25 million in a new round of funding led by Atlantic Bridge Partners and Intel Capital. The mobile and social app analytics firm will use the funding to expand globally within the mobile space.

“This funding round puts us in an outstanding position for growth,” said chief executive officer Hugh Reynolds. “Swrve already has a number of blue-chip clients experiencing outstanding return on investment from our product. We’re handling over a billion events per day, and we know the product has what it takes. We just need to tell the world. This funding gives us the opportunity to do just that.”

Swrve says its service processes more than a billion events each day with the incoming Swrve Campaign Tracker allowing clients to track the return-on-investment on new user acquisition. “It’s no longer good enough to simply pay a fixed sum for a certain number of new users. Campaign Tracker finally enables our customers to know how valuable each customer is – and as a consequence, which sources and campaigns are paying their way,” noted Reynolds.

Source: VentureBeat

Windows President Departs Microsoft

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Windows president Steven Sinofsky has resigned from Microsoft. His Windows software and hardware engineering duties will be taken over by corporate vice president of program management Julie Larson-Green (previously, she was responsible for Windows 7 and 8 user interface design and research) while chief financial officer and chief marketing officer Tami Reller will take over Windows business practices.

“I am grateful for the many years of work that Steven has contributed to the company,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “The products and services we have delivered to the market in the past few months mark the launch of a new era at Microsoft. To continue this success it is imperative that we continue to drive alignment across all Microsoft teams, and have more integrated and rapid development cycles for our offerings. It was clear to me that Julie is the best possible person for this job, and I’m excited to have her in this role.”

“After more than 23 years working on a wide range of Microsoft products, I have decided to leave the company to seek new opportunities that build on these experiences,” wrote Sinofsky. “My passion for building products is as strong as ever and I look forward focusing my energy and creativity along similar lines.”

Source: CNET

Adam Sessler Hired By Revision 3

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Revision3 has announced that it has named Adam Sessler as executive producer of games content. The former X-Play host will work with Rev3 Games hosts Max Scoville, Tara Long and Anthony Carboni to create video game content for the digital video service.

“I cannot overstate how excited I am to be joining Revision 3,” said Sessler. “My desire to create innovative video content that addresses the game industry, in this period of rapid evolution, could not find a better outlet. Nowhere else could I indulge my need for unvarnished opinions on the game industry and appetite for irreverent fun. This may be a new beginning but I already feel right at home.”

“I’m extremely excited to welcome Adam to Revision3,” said Ryan Vance, SVP, Programming and Production, Revision3. “I had the pleasure of working with Adam for many years, most notably on the creation of ‘X-Play’ and can speak first-hand about his extensive creativity, expertise and stellar reputation in the gaming industry. We look forward to adding Adam’s creative vision to our existing gaming content and supercharging the Rev3 Games channel.”

Minecraft: 8 Million Served On PC

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Minecraft has surpassed 8 million sales on the PC. The Mojang title hit the 7 million milestone on the PC just two months ago.

“The PC version of Minecraft just passed 8 million sales!” tweeted Minecraft creator Markus Persson. “My face is making grinning sounds, so I assume it’s grinning!”

Source: Twitter

The ‘Cool Kids’ Of Social Media

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High-school is very big on the cliques and web design company Wix built a social media site infographic based upon these stereotypes. For instance, Facebook is the high school quarterback, YouTube was the drama enthusiast and Instagram is the flirt.

 

Freshdesk Brings MobiHelp To IOS

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Freshdesk has announced that it is debuting the MobiHelp for iOS developers. Designed to help with customer support with mobile applications, it is designed to be a comprehensive help desk platform.

“Consumers don’t spend much time trying to figure out apps. If they don’t get it within the first few minutes, chances are they’re never coming back,” says Zach Baker from Ultragalactic Corporation, a current Freshdesk customer. “With MobiHelp, we get to share solutions with our users, and they can talk to us directly from the app.”

Freshdesk MobiHelp SDK is free to integrate into apps, and has support and CRM in every mobile application. Freshdesk converts each user feedback into support tickets where developers can mark status and manage their progress and MobiHelp automatically pulls in the user’s app and device ID so that developers receive details about the user’s environment. Freshdesk’s MobiHelp constantly monitors for crashes and sends automatic crash reports directly to the developer. In addition to in-app support, developers can use Freshdesk to support users through email and their website and even engage them on social media.“Smart devices and social media together have been able to connect people across the globe and break geographic barriers. Yet, users need to create new logins, use different tools and generally jump hoops just to give feedback to developers for apps they use everyday,” says Freshdesk CEO, Girish Mathrubootham. “Freshdesk MobiHelp brings the critical piece of user engagement right inside the app, and bridges the gap between iOS developers and the users of their apps.”

Pay-Per-Vote: The Cost Of The 2012 Election

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An unprecedented amount was spent by outside groups in an effort to influence the 2012 campaign, though generally the candidates with the most super PAC funding were defeated Election Day. In the Presidential race, those supporting Romney spent over 300 percent more per vote, but produced over 3 million votes less than President Obama did.

 

While not the most expensive campaign by the amount of money spent total, the most expensive race per vote was the Nevada Senate race; Shelley Berkley spent nearly twice as much as her opponent Dean Heller and still lost. Worth noting in all of these cases, most of the funding money was used to attack the opponent rather than support their candidate.

 

Source: Projects.Propublica.org