eBay’s Barcode Scanning App RedLaser Nearing Nine Million Downloads

RedLaser, the barcode scanning mobile app that eBay acquired from Occipital in June 2010, is nearing a significant milestone—nine million total downloads of its iPhone and Android apps. That’s up from 2 million downloads at the time of the acquisitions, which is nearly a 350% increase in downloads.

RedLaser’s barcode scanning technology allows users to comparison shop on the go. Anyone can scan a barcode on an item at a store and then automatically access any eBay listings and local availability (courtesy of Milo) of the product on the marketplace. Sellers can also use the scanning technology to scan and item and list the product in very little time. RedLaser’s technology was also integrated into eBay’s dedicated iPhone and Android apps.

eBay also added QR Code scanning to RedLaser last Fall, and the apps are currently seeing 4,000 Quick Response code scans per day.

eBay says that more than half of RedLaser scans are in the U.S., followed by the U.K. at 20 percent. And the top five U.S. regions using RedLaser are New York City, New Jersey, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area and Houston.

Additionally, RedLaser licenses its barcode scanning technology, and eBay is reporting that RedLaser licensees has doubled to 150 since June 2010 and includes Coupons.com, The Knot and Shopkick.

For eBay, mobile has been a huge strategy and the company is revealing that all of its family of apps (including eBay, RedLaser, Half.com and more) have seen more than 33 million combined app downloads.

Information provided by CrunchBase

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Neomobile Acquires Mobile Payments Startup Onebip

Mobile media company Neomobile has acquired Onebip, a company that provides mobile payment solutions to online game publishers, social networks and ecommerce companies.

The Italian group says the acquisition of Onebip will enhance its offering to international merchants, particularly coupled with its strong mobile carrier relationships throughout Europe and Latin America.

Financial details on the transaction were not disclosed but we’ve learned Onebip’s co-founders, Diego Mortillaro and Marko Maras, will remain on board.


Investors Put Their Money On StarStreet As They Open Two New Sports Stock Markets

Betting on sports is one of the most popular forms of gambling in the world. And for good reason. Unlike more traditional gambling, people often have feelings about the teams and stars they’re betting on. Both the money-making and the fan aspect are also what help drive fantasy sports. And StarStreet thinks they can tap into what people like about both with a different approach.

But don’t call it “betting”, founder Jeremy Levine is quick to note. These are “investments”, not “bets”.

One of last year’s TechStars graduates, we first noted StarStreet last June. What they’ve built is a stock market system for sports that uses real money. The first market was for the NFL, but it temporarily closes down when that season is over. So now they offer a NBA market. And beginning today they’re offering a MLB Market and a NCAA March Madness Market.

Oh, and StarStreet is getting some money of their own to help pay for the new features.

SV Angel and Jarr Capital have led a seed round of funding for the company, with angels Don McLagan, Andrew Blachman, Ben Littauer participating. It’s probably an easy investment — not bet — for these guys to make since StarStreet has a clear road to start making money. They take a 4 percent cut on the sale side of every trade (but there are no fees to buy, and no fees for depositing and withdrawing money from the system).

Others have tried this sports stock market idea before and it hasn’t worked. Notably, OneSeason lasted for, well, one season. But StarStreet believes their model will actually work because it’s a zero-sum market. With StarStreet, the total value of each sports’ market is constrained from the time of players’ “IPOs” until their “retirements” at the end of the season. (And IPO’s occur as a blind yankee auction, so everyone has a shot at getting a piece.)

In terms of legality, again, StarStreet is about investing and not gambling. “It is a game of skill (not chance) that does not depend on a single end outcome or result (like a bet does),” Levine says, noting that they’ve had plenty of lawyers vet the idea.

In fact, the non-gambling issue is why StarStreet’s NCAA market will only be for play money, and not real money. First of all, they can’t use the names of amateur athletes because unlike professional athletes, their names are not in the public domain. So that means you have to invest in teams, but because of the way the tournament works, some teams get eliminated before others and the money invested in them returns to the pool — that gets a little too close to gambling, Levine says.

Levine won’t say how much money they’re bringing in from the NBA market yet (the initial NFL market was done without their fee to test things out). He will say that engagement numbers are high though. “About 25 percent of the traders are active every single day, over 50 percent almost every single week since we launched real money,” Levine says.

Information provided by CrunchBase


Kayak Partners With Travelocity To Take Direct Hotel Reservations

Travel search engine Kayak is making an interesting move today. The site is now allowing users to make hotel bookings directly through the company’s website. Kayak is partnering with Travelocity to power the hotel booking feature.

So previously, if you wanted to book a hotel using Kayak’s search engine, you would click through to the hotel or partner site to book the reservation. Kayak would receive a affiliate fee from the transaction but the actual booking would be made outside of the search engine.

Now, you can make the reservation within the Kayak platform, similar to the experience of making a hotel booking through Expedia (although you’ll still be able to book via the hotel or other sites as well). Travelocity will process the transactions and provide customer service on a white label basis. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The feature was previously released in a limited beta and will be available on its website and iPhone application in the coming weeks.

Of course, Kayak will now compete with Expedia, Orbitz and others for travel booking. Also, it doesn’t appear that Kayak will be extending the same functionality for airline bookings for now.

It’s a strategic move on Kayak’s part, and represents the company’s move beyond just being a search engine to becoming a full-fledged bookings site. As the company prepares for a public offering, Kayak is looking to create more lasting revenue and bookings within the site could bring the company more direct sales. Kayak also recently struck a deal with Microsoft Bing, to integrate its travel search results into the search engine.

Information provided by CrunchBase


Cameron concern for quake Britons

Quake damage in Ofunato town, in Iwate prefecture A UK search and rescue team has arrived in Ofunato on Japan’s east coast

Prime Minister David Cameron has said there were “severe concerns” for a number of British nationals after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Mr Cameron told MPs the devastation was of “truly colossal proportions” but there were no confirmed UK fatalities.

The UK had offered its expertise to help Japan deal with damaged nuclear reactors, the prime minister added.

More than 4,000 people have so far contacted a Foreign Office helpline for those worried about relatives in Japan.

Mr Cameron said in a Commons statement: “We were all deeply shocked and saddened by the devastation we have seen and by the loss of life, the full scale of which will take many days, possibly weeks, to comprehend.

“I’m sure the thoughts of everyone in this House, indeed everyone in our country, are with the Japanese people and we stand with you at this time.

“As yet there are no confirmed British fatalities but we have severe concerns about a number of British nationals.”

Mr Cameron said the British embassy had sent three rapid deployment teams to the worst affected areas, with another group of officials arriving in Japan on Monday.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Meltdown alert at Japan reactor

A person believed to be have been contaminated with radiation wrapped in a blanket in Fukushima prefecture 13/3/11People with suspected radiation contamination are being evacuated

Technicians are battling to stabilise a third reactor at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear plant, which has been rocked by a second blast in three days.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant’s operators have resumed pumping seawater into reactor 2 after a cooling system broke.

They warned of a possible meltdown when the fuel rods became exposed after the pump stopped as its fuel ran out.

A cooling system breakdown preceded explosions at the plant’s reactor 3 on Monday and reactor 1 on Saturday.

The latest hydrogen blast injured 11 people, one of them seriously, and sent a huge column of smoke billowing into the air.

Analysis

The fuel rod exposure at Fukushima Daiichi number 2 reactor is potentially the most serious event so far at the plant.

A local government official confirmed the fuel rods were at one point largely, if not totally exposed; but we do not know for how long.

Without coolant around the rods, temperatures can rise to hundreds of degrees Celsius, almost certainly resulting in some melting.

This opens the possibility of a serious meltdown – where molten, highly radioactive reactor core falls through the floor of the containment vessel and into the ground underneath.

However, engineers appear to have restored some water flow into the reactor vessel and if they are successful, temperatures will begin to fall again rapidly.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) is playing down any health risk, saying thick containment walls shielding the reactor cores have remained intact.

Experts say a disaster on the scale of Chernobyl in the 1980s is highly unlikely because the reactors are built to a higher standard and have much more rigorous safety measures.

But the US said it had moved one of its aircraft carriers from the area after detecting low-level radiation 160km (100 miles) offshore.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from a 20-km exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

In other developments:

Two thousand bodies have been found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture, Japanese media are reportingThe central bank said it would pump 15 trillion yen ($182bn; £113bn) into the economy to prop up markets, but the Nikkei slumped more than 6%Prime Minister Naoto Kan postponed planned rolling power cuts, saying they may not be needed if householders could conserve energy

The relief operation is continuing after Friday’s magnitude 8.9 quake, which triggered a tsunami that devastated swathes of the north-eastern coast of the country.

The death toll remains unclear – officials in Miyagi estimate 10,000 people died in that prefecture alone.

Explosion at nuclear plant in Japan

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the core container at the reactor was still intact

Tens of thousands of relief workers, soldiers and police have been deployed to the disaster zone.

The government asked people not to go to work or school on Monday because the transport network would not be able to cope with demand.

The capital, Tokyo, is still experiencing regular aftershocks, amid warnings that another powerful earthquake is likely to strike very soon.

The disaster is a huge blow for the Japanese economy – the world’s third largest – which has been ailing for two decades.

The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice to warn against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and north-eastern Japan.

British nationals and friends and relatives of those in Japan can contact the Foreign Office on +44(0) 20 7008 0000.

Map showing effects of Japanese earthquake

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Accused ‘took sister to see body’

Zoe NelsonZoe Nelson’s body was discovered in Wishaw last May
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The sister of a teenager whose burned body was found in woods in Lanarkshire has told a murder trial the accused took her to see the dead body.

Laura Anne Nelson, 17, said she met Robert Bayne who told her he had “something to show her”.

Miss Nelson told the High Court in Edinburgh he took her to an area, known locally as Monkey Hill, where he pointed out Zoe Nelson’s body.

Robert Bayne, 21, denies murdering Zoe Nelson in May last year.

Laura Anne Nelson said she had gone to Mr Bayne’s grandmother’s house in Cambusnethan, Wishaw, to return some clothes.

She described the accused as appearing “jumpy” and had dried dirt on his hands and face and was drinking vodka.

The witness told advocate depute Lesley Shand QC that when the pair left the house together Mr Bayne had said he had something to show her.

Miss Nelson added: “He took me to show me where Zoe was.”

She said that among the grass and trees she saw Zoe’s blackened body.

“He pointed it out,” she told the trial.

Among the allegations faced by Robert Bayne is the claim that he disclosed the whereabouts of Zoe Nelson’s body to her sister, then threatened her and implied he would kill her if she told what she had seen.

Mr Bayne is accused of attacking Zoe Nelson with a knife at Monkey Hill, near Branchalfield Drive, Cambusnethan, putting a plastic sheet over her head to restrict her breathing and then setting fire to her on 22 May 2010.

He also denies an earlier attack on her by punching her on the head and scratching her and, on another occasion, committing a breach of the peace by threatening her.

It is also claimed that after the murder, he tried to cover up his alleged crime by setting fire to Ms Nelson’s body, washing his clothes, dumping her mobile phone and telling police that someone else was responsible.

The trial before judge Lady Dorrian continues.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

E-mail lay-offs ‘isolated error’

A British soldierThe Army apologised to the men for distress caused by the e-mail
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E-mails sent out to 38 soldiers to tell them they were losing their jobs were the result of a “genuine and isolated error”, a defence minister has said.

Andrew Robathan said normal procedures were not followed and the soldiers should have been told first.

The men, one of whom was serving in Afghanistan, were sent an e-mail giving them one year’s notice, saying it was part of defence cutbacks.

The Army has apologised and has been investigating what happened.

The Ministry of Defence said the inquiry involved three Army personnel and was completed on February 23.

Mr Robathan said the findings would not be published.

He said: “This investigation has confirmed this was the result of a genuine and isolated error which meant the normal staffing procedures were not followed.

“This meant the 38 individuals affected had not been informed of this decision by the chain of command before they received the email from the Army Personnel Centre, which would usually be the case.”

He said in future, a colonel would have to sign off all communications about job losses.

“The MoD fully recognises the distress this caused the individuals and their families, and I take this opportunity once again to apologise unreservedly for this error.”

The e-mail was first reported by the Sun newspaper last month. It said the warrant officers included a Royal Tank Regiment veteran who was working on the front line in Afghanistan when he received the redundancy notice.

All the soldiers had completed several decades’ service and served in the Army on a rolling contract – known as the long service list.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox said at the time it was “completely unacceptable” that the soldiers had learned of the news by e-mail.

Last October, the government’s strategic defence review outlined cuts of £4.7bn over four years, with defence spending falling by 8% in that period.

Some 42,000 defence jobs will be cut by 2015 – including 25,000 civilian staff at the MoD, 7,000 in the Army and 5,000 in the Royal Navy as well as the RAF.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Freeze travel cost ‘£280m a day’

A worker operates a snow plough near the second runway at HeathrowBAA said flights were grounded at Heathrow after more snow fell than anticipated
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Transport disruption in freezing weather over the winter cost the UK economy about £280m a day, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has said.

Heathrow suffered “enormous damage” to its reputation from cancellations and delays just before Christmas, he added.

Appearing before the House of Commons Transport Committee, Mr Hammond said the rail network operated “quite well given the extreme conditions”.

But communication with rail passengers had been “inadequate”, he said.

Mr Hammond said that Heathrow had failed to adequately manage the extreme weather that almost brought the airport to a complete halt in the days before Christmas.

The ability to introduce special flight timetables during such weather was essential, he said.

“This would avoid the unacceptable spectacle of passengers turning up for flights that were never going to happen and being held in substandard conditions in terminals,” he told the committee.

Appearing before the MPs last week, BAA chief executive Colin Matthews apologised and admitted Heathrow had been “overwhelmed” after far more snow fell than the 6cm (2.4in) it had planned for.

“There will always be [airport] disruption if we get 6in or 8in of snow,” Mr Hammond said on Monday.

He told MPs that, on railways in southern England, the weather had caused problems with the third rail carrying electricity to trains.

While the network generally operated “quite well given the extreme conditions”, Mr Hammond added: “The lack of communication was one of the key complaints that passengers had.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Gulf states send force to Bahrain

Protesters and police on a road in Manama

Clashes were also reported in the city’s main square and university.

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Troops from a number of Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have arrived in Bahrain in response to a request from the small Gulf kingdom, officials say.

It comes a day after the worst violence since seven anti-government protesters were killed in clashes with security forces last month.

Dozens of people were injured on Sunday as protesters pushed back police and barricaded roads.

Bahrain’s opposition said the foreign troops amounted to an occupation.

A Saudi official said about 1,000 Saudi Arabian troops arrived in Bahrain early on Monday.

The troops are part of a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) deployment, a six-nation regional grouping which includes Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

It is believed they are intended to guard key facilities such as oil and gas installations and financial institutions.

Bahrain’s Shia majority has long complained of discrimination at the hands of the Sunni ruling elite, but large-scale protests broke out last month after the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were toppled in uprisings.

In a statement issued before the arrival of the GCC troops was confirmed, the Shia-led opposition said: “We consider the arrival of any soldier, or military vehicle, into Bahraini territory… an overt occupation of the kingdom of Bahrain and a conspiracy against the unarmed people of Bahrain.”

King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifah has offered dialogue with the protesters but they have refused, saying they want the government to step down.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.