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Friday, December 20, 2013
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At least two moderators of the Silk Road 2 user forums have been arrested by authorities in the U.S. and Ireland. A source claiming to have inside knowledge of the arrests said that Libertas, a moderator on the Silk Road 2 forums [TOR link], has been arrested by the Irish Police (Garda Siochana) in Wicklow during a raid carried out on Thursday at about 8PM local time. A source at the Wicklow Police has confirmed the arrest of the yet-unnamed moderator.


The FBI allegedly arrested another moderator, Inigo, in Virginia.


“They caught [Libertas] this evening at his house in Wicklow at around 8pm Irish time, and managed to seize approx 200,000 Euro of bitcoins in the raid. The figure is to be confirmed,” the source said. “It looks like the the beginnings of the demise of Silk Road 2, not very long after its resurrection.”


A police source independently confirmed the arrest of Libertas. Libertas did not respond to online messages.


The source explained that a EU law enforcement infiltrated both the Silk Road and the Silk Road 2 after the arrest of site owner Ross Ulbricht.


“Silk Road were very foolish in their operations,” he said. “A number of EU LE units infiltrated their market admin. Plenty of other information was acquired. We will see that as the Ross Ulbrict case proceeds, EU law enforcement had a large part to play in providing the FBI with the information they needed, partially because most of the operators and the servers were over this side of the Atlantic.”


Authorities have not released the names of the moderators although the Irish police believe that Libertas is “tied in with” the Irish Silk Road drug trade.


In Virginia a Reddit user claiming to be in a relationship with Silk Road 2 moderator Inigo announced that her boyfriend had been arrested.


princess


I’m not sure what his login name was, all i know is that apparently he was an admin and then a mod and that he also ran the book club. He is a wonderful person and has been supporting me (due to my chronic pain), so to say the least my world has been turned inside out and upside down. They told me they were making arrests all around the world at the same time….can anyone give me any info on who he was? i’m hoping he was well liked and respected because even though i didn’t know he was doing this, I can guarantee he was doing it out of his passion for Libertarianism and for the idea of a free marketplace. Just thought i would pass on the message….

Her story – corroborated by arrest warrants and a business card from Christopher Tarbell, a Special Agent for the FBI who took down the first Silk Road earlier this year – is not confirmed at this time.


Last night four posts on the Silk Road 2 forums and on Reddit hinted at what are being called “synchronized world arrests.” It appears these are the arrests in question.







6:08 AM

At least two moderators of the Silk Road 2 user forums have been arrested by authorities in the U.S. and Ireland. A source claiming to have ...

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Peer-to-peer car rental startup (and TechCrunch Disrupt winner!) Getaround wants to reduce the number of cars on the road, by enabling its users to rent out those owned by regular folks around them. But to get more cars off the road, first it has to get more cars on its platform. All of which is why Getaround, in conjunction with a Smart car dealership in San Francisco, is offering a pretty sweet deal on new leases of cars that its members intend to rent out to others.


As part of the partnership, the dealership will waive the down payment on three-year leases of new Smart Pure models if the car is put on Getaround. Members will pay $99 for base models, or if they pick an upgraded, they will get discounted rates on the vehicle. The deal, which runs through January 2, will save members who participate about $1,500.


In addition to lowering the cost of ownership to add a new car to the platform, the company will install one of its Getaround Carkits into those cars in order to make them instantly available to on-demand renters.


Those Carkits enable members who list their cars to make them available to Getaround renters, without having to hand off keys. Once installed, renters are able to unlock and gain instant access without having to deal with all the back and forth of determining whether a vehicle is available or not.


While helping to get more cars leased in the next few weeks might seem a little counterintuitive for a company whose mission is to reduce car ownership, Getaround estimates that in the long run each vehicle on its platform takes anywhere from seven to 13 cars off the road.


“We wouldn’t do this deal if we didn’t think it fit with our mission. It lets us get more Instant cars out there,” Getaround co-founder Jessica Scorpio told me. Not just that, but Scorpio points out that these are new cars that are fuel-efficient, safe, and under warrantee. That means members who already list cars will potentially be able to upgrade and get rid of their older-model vehicles.


The deal also enables a bit of micro-entrepreneurship for Getaround members who are looking to make a little bit of cash while also getting a new car in the process. The average Smart car owner makes nearly $600 a month. Deduct the monthly cost of the lease, insurance, gas, and maybe parking, and those members could still bring home a fair amount of cash, provided the car is rented regularly.


So here’s the downside: It’s a limited partnership with one dealership in only one area in which Getaround operates. Unlike rival RelayRides, which has opened its peer-to-peer car rental market nationwide, Getaround is still taking a city-to-city approach to its rollout, with cars available in the Bay Area, as well as Portland, Chicago, Austin, and San Diego. But for now, really only SF residents need apply.


But Scorpio said the company is interested in offering the same type of deal in other markets, and is in talks with manufacturers to make that happen. “OEMs are looking for ways to get into the sharing economy,” she said.


Getaround isn’t the only startup that’s partnered with an auto manufacturer to increase supply on its marketplace: Last month, on-demand car service startup Uber struck a deal with auto manufacturers and financing companies to lower the cost of getting a new car for its drivers. That partnership is available in six of Uber’s fastest-growing markets, but it too is looking to expand outside of its initial trial over time.


Anyway, the deal seems like a win-win for both parties, at least in San Francisco: Getaround gets to add to its instant inventory in the Bay Area, while Smart gets to clear out a bit of its own inventory and get more of its cars on the road. Oh yeah, and Getaround members also benefit by having a larger supply of vehicles to choose from throughout the city.


Getaround has raised $19 million since being founded in 2011. Investors include Menlo Ventures, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, A-Grade Investments, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Collaborative Fund, SOSventures’ Sean O’Sullivan, Correlation Ventures, HotelTonight CEO Sam Shank, Yammer CEO David Sacks, Saba Software CEO Bobby Yazdani, Hoteles.com founder Matias de Tezanos, Clarity.fm founder Dan Martell, .CO CEO Juan Diego Calle, Netflix founder Marc Randolph, Powerset founder Barney Pell, WordPress’ Matt Mullenweg, Redpoint Ventures, General Catalyst, Crunchfund, and others.







6:08 AM

Peer-to-peer car rental startup (and TechCrunch Disrupt winner! ) Getaround wants to reduce the number of cars on the road, by enabling its...

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News Corp is raising its game in digital news again: the company has just announced that it is acquiring Storyful, a Ireland-based “village square” for social media news, aggregating stories found on social media networks like Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, and verifying the sources in the process. The price is €18 million ($25 million).


News Corp. says that it will continue as a standalone company post-acquisition. The news comes as another News Corp. property, the Wall Street Journal, is doubling down on its digital operations, with the launch of WSJD coming up to expand how the storied newspaper expands online, covering tech news and more.


“Storyful has become the village square for valuable video, using journalistic sensibility, integrity and creativity to find, authenticate and commercialise user-generated content,” said Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp. “Through this acquisition, we can extend the village square across borders, languages and platforms.”


The news comes about a week after Scripps announced that it would acquire Newsy for $35 million.


More to come.



NEW YORK (December 20, 2013) – Accelerating News Corp’s digital transformation and video strategy, the company has acquired Storyful, the world’s first social news agency.


Building on Storyful’s skill in finding verified news amidst the noise of social media, News Corp will use its own global scale, robust digital presence and advertising expertise to enhance and expand Storyful’s video products and services for newsrooms, advertising agencies and brands. News Corp will also utilize Storyful’s tools to help drive engagement and revenue across News Corp’s businesses.


Storyful, acquired for €18 million (approximately $25 million USD), will operate as a stand-alone business unit within News Corp and continue to work with its existing roster of global customers, which includes The Wall Street Journal.


“Storyful has become the village square for valuable video, using journalistic sensibility, integrity and creativity to find, authenticate and commercialise user-generated content,” said Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp. “Through this acquisition, we can extend the village square across borders, languages and platforms.”


The acquisition complements News Corp’s existing video capabilities, which include the creation and distribution of original and on-demand programming, such as WSJ Live and the recently launched BallBall in Asia.


The Dublin, Ireland-based start-up discovers, verifies, acquires and distributes timely and relevant video and user-generated content to its partners. With its combination of proprietary technology and journalistic expertise, Storyful also provides social media dashboards, real-time discovery tools, feeds and analytics to its customers, allowing them to integrate video into their news or advertising efforts via online and mobile platforms and to monitor social conversations and sentiment. So far in 2013, verified user-generated videos managed by Storyful generated 750 million views for its partners.


Added Mr. Thomson, “Video is a vocation for the new News, which will combine with Storyful to reach a growing global audience, enhancing our own editorial products and creating new content communities.”


Storyful’s management team of Chief Executive Officer Mark Little and Executive Editor David Clinch will continue to oversee the company’s operations. Rahul Chopra, Senior Vice President of Video for News Corp, will join the Storyful management team, taking on the additional role of Chief Revenue Officer. Mr. Little will report to David Brinker, News Corp Senior Vice President and Global Head of Business & Corporate Development.


“By joining forces with News Corp, Storyful can quickly transform its vision into a global reality,” said Mr. Little. “We believe that journalism in the age of social media needs to be open, innovative and collaborative, and so does the business model that will sustain it. News Corp is a natural fit for a company which wants to help reinvent the news industry.”


Storyful remains headquartered in Dublin, where the company was founded in 2008. Additional business development and advertising sales staff will be hired and based in New York.


Investors include Ray Nolan, one of Ireland’s leading entrepreneurs; SOS Ventures; the Irish State Enterprise Board; ACT Ventures; as well as Mr. Little.








5:53 AM

News Corp is raising its game in digital news again: the company has just announced that it is acquiring Storyful, a Ireland-based “village...

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For some inexplicable reason, probably related to egocentric human nature, software developers can't seem to resist designing their programs as if they were default services: always on and ready. If you're familiar with maintaining a PC and like tinkering with programs, you'll know that you need to periodically disable or get rid of accumulating, seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time programs that automatically run processes. These automatically loading tools hog resources, clog up RAM and CPU and slow overall operating system startup.


5:39 AM

For some inexplicable reason, probably related to egocentric human nature, software developers can't seem to resist designing their pr...

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5:24 AM

BlackBerry announced today that it would be partnering with Foxconn to produce devices going forward, and CEO John Chen revealed a few detai...

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BlackBerry announced its fiscal Q3 2014 results today, and the numbers aren’t pretty. The company revealed a whopping $4.4 billion GAAP-adjusted loss for the quarter, which includes a write-down on current inventory of around $1.6 billion. It “recognized revenue” on only 1.9 million BlackBerry handsets, compared to 3.7 million in the same period a year ago, but it also claims that it sold around 4.3 million BlackBerrys through to end customers it says, of which 3.2 million were BlackBerry 7 handsets. Whichever way you look at that, it’s not good.


BlackBerry stressed the growth of Enterprise Services, Messaging, and QNX Embedded OS in auto and cloud as high points, and noted a change in corporate structure in which those are given more equal weight against its Devices unit. And as for the Devices unit, BlackBerry announced a partnership with Foxconn that will span five years and kick off with a smartphone unit designed specifically for “Indonesia and other fast-growing markets in early 2014.”


This partnership could offload the majority of BlackBerry’s hardware inventory management duties to Foxconn, and Mexico is named as another early target for devices coming out of the arrangement. Essentially, it sounds much more like BlackBerry is making Foxconn a licensee with more or less full control over its smartphone division, while it continues to work on services and software in-house. It could be a good way to offload the risk and responsibility of handset production while still selling to its remaining market strongholds.


Earnings for this quarter were dismal, and missed already bleak analyst expectations. The company is in yet another transition phase as it looks to its new CEO John Chen to help it recover from the lasting damage done by the BlackBerry 10 launch and the very poor sales of Z10 and Q10 handsets. No one expected them to do well this time around, but a $4.4 billion loss is over four times what it suffered even last quarter, so it’s clear that changes at the faltering company have just begun.







5:09 AM

BlackBerry announced its f iscal Q3 2014 results today , and the numbers aren’t pretty. The company revealed a whopping $4.4 billion GAAP-ad...

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Accelerometers, GPS receivers and other sensors in your smartphone let you track your outdoor activities in ways that go beyond just the common map. In this week's All Things Appy, we take a look at the top five free apps for exploring, including options for fine-tuning your GPS, measuring headings and bearings, logging your tracks and reckoning distance. Google Maps, for instance, is the granddaddy of mobile mapping. It simply tells you your location and gets you to your destination -- without fail.


5:09 AM

Accelerometers, GPS receivers and other sensors in your smartphone let you track your outdoor activities in ways that go beyond just the c...

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