Battlefield 3 Sells 5 M...

Battlefield 3 is here and in a major way. The latest shooter in the long-running franchise hit the interweb and retailers last week and EA just announced that they moved 5 million units within the first week. For anyone that cares, that makes Battlefield 3 the fastest selling title in EA’s 29 year history. And for good reason. EA and DICE conducted a flawless marketing campaign for Battlefield 3. The marketing first targeted those that really care — dedicated gamers — as the game was first revealed this year (read: the game came out in the same year it was announced) in GameInformer magazine. Then the videos hit. EA systematically released gameplay footage of the stunning first level Fault Line. These videos, originally just a couple quick minutes, pieced together the entire first level for the view and perfectly showcased not only the game, but the brand new Frostbite 2 game engine. By the time E3 hit in June, gamers and the press were very familiar with Battlefield 3 where it stole the show partly thanks to playable demos. The marketing ramped up over the summer in preparation for the much-anticipated open beta. Invites first went out to players who bought Medal of Honor: Tier 1 edition and those that pre-ordered Battlefield 3: Limited Edition. But soon, EA opened up two maps for anyone that wanted to try Battlefield 3. And try they did. More than 8 million players participated in the beta during its 12 days. That resulted in 47 billion shots fired and 1.5 billion kills. But despite the extensive testing, EA’s new servers couldn’t hand the opening rush and faltered the first few days. Still, Battlefield 3 is a hit but will its popularity diminish after Modern Warfare 3 launches in the coming days?

And Here It Is: The New...

Today, Google is rolling out its update to Google Reader which features the promised user interface overhaul, and, more importantly, the new Google+ integration. Now, Google Reader users can “+1″ items directly from Google Reader to share it with their friends on Google+. This feature now replaces the “Share” and “Share with Note” options previously present. As expected , Google has ignored the cries of the niche community of Google Reader sharing enthusiasts (as well as what seems to be the entire online population of Iran ), and has pushed forward in its plans to remove Google Reader’s native sharing features to promote deeper integration with Google+. While the ability to share with Google+ is an obvious important step forward for Google’s social agenda, it will be disappointing change for at least some of the Google Reader community – a community that even went so far as to create a petition to save the old features. It didn’t have to be this way. Kevin Fox, who helped design Google Reader back in the day, suggested that Google rebuild Reader’s social sharing feature using the Google Plus API as a foundation. That would have kept existing users happy while also allowing others to broaden their reach through social sharing to Google+. But that didn’t happen. Even the “ we are the (1000+) ” #occupyGoogleReader meme  (from Google Reader’s creators, no less!) didn’t seem to help. Google at least acknowledges that it heard the outcry, saying: We hope you’ll like the new Reader (and Google+) as much as we do, but we understand that some of you may not. Retiring Reader’s sharing features wasn’t a decision that we made lightly, but in the end, it helps us focus on fewer areas, and build an even better experience across all of Google. And if you don’t like it? Well, too bad – this is the future of Google Reader. If you don’t like it, there’s the door. “If you do decide to stay,” writes Alan Green on the official Google Reader blog , Google wants to hear your feedback.

Gemvara Hires Former Za...

What do you do when you have more than a billion potential product combinations on your site? You hire a user experience (UX) guru. Gemvara , a jewelry e-commerce site that lets consumers custom-design their own jewelry, just acquired Snipwits , a one-man startup founded by Brian Kalma , who will now be in charge of the customer experience team at Gemvara. Kalma previously headed up UX design at both Zappos (as one of its first employees) and Gilt Groupe. Kalma will tackle the challenge of helping customers narrow down a billion choices down to something they will actually buy. Gemvara uses no photographs. All of its images are virtual inventory (computer generated renderings), since customers can mix and match gemstones and metals to create their own rings, necklaces, and earrings. The Boston-based company is growing rapidly , on track to triple its revenues this year from “several million last year,” CEO Matt Lauzon tells me. (Boston, apparently, is where it’s happening this week). While this was very much an acqhire (the acquisition price was not revealed), Snipwits will continue to exists a sa stand-alone product and parts of it may become integrated into Gemvara. Snipwits is a peer-to-peer learning platform. Getting gem-browsing customers to teach each other about different kinds of gems and rare metals could be one way to get them more comfortable about parting with $840 for a ring they never get to touch before it arrives in the mail. Crunchbase GEMVARA SNIPWITS BRIAN KALMA Company: Gemvara Website: gemvara.com Funding: $20.2M Gemvara.com offers more than 1,500 original designs that are easily customizable by the shopper - he/she can mix-and-match from 24 gemstones and 8 precious metals, creating one-of-a-kind designer jewelry. Prices start around $50 and go up to the thousands. Once the order is placed, the piece is handcrafted in the U.S. and ships within 2 to 3 weeks. Learn more Company: Snipwits Website: snipwits.com Snipwits is a startup based out of New York City. Snipwits is a place to share what you’ve learned with others while discovering new and interesting educational opportunities from the community of users. Currently in private alpha, Snipwits is expected to be in public beta sometime in early Fall. Learn more Person: Brian Kalma Website: snipwits.com Companies: Zappos , Gilt Groupe , Snipwits Brian is currently working on a startup called Snipwits. Previously he spent about 7 years at Zappos heading up several departments including: Marketing, Creative Services and User Experience. After Zappos Brian spent time at Gilt Groupe working to build their User Experience department. Snipwits is currently situated at Dogpatch Labs in New York City. Learn more

Charity Groups Glom Ont...

Nonprofit and advocacy groups are hoping to leverage Burger King’s Promoted Trend buy on Twitter today.

Urban Airship’s Strateg...

Back in November of 2009, former Digg Chief Architect Joe Stump and Social Thing founder Matt Galligan first publicly unveiled their new startup, SimpleGeo , which was slated to become the new infrastructure for location-based services. They called it the “Amazon Web Services” for location, offering products that make it easy for developers to build location-enabled web and mobile apps, including storage, context, API features, and polymaps. Less than a year later, in March 2010, SimpleGeo was closing in on a terabyte of geodata stored, had grown their staff to 13, and launched officially to the public . A year later, the startup initiated their “grand unveiling”, which revealed what they’d been focused on over the last year, which was SimpleGeo Storage : A hosted database that allows developers to store and retrieve location data. And since it was hosted, it allowed developers to outsource their infrastructural issues issues and was distributed using Cassandra, so there’s no single point of failure. But, then in August, SimpleGeo Co-founder Matt Galligan decided to step down , deciding to take some time off to do his own thing as well as become a West coast advisor to the TechStars incubator and launch 1% of Nothing , which asks founders to give 1 percent of their earnings to charity in the case of a liquidity event. Well, SimpleGeo now has that opportunity, as Mike Arrington reports that SimpleGeo has been acquired by Urban Airship for approximately $3.5 million. In July, the two companies formed a strategic partnership which was intended to, put simply, provide better ways for developers to offer location-aware push notifications in their applications. Geo-targeted notifications were expected to be a big source of revenue for both startups, but it seems that it just made more sense for the companies to move forward as one rather than as two separate entities. SimpleGeo has raised $10 million in outside investment since 2009, with its first angel seed round including quite a few big names like Ron Conway, Kevin Rose, Chris Sacca, Timothy Ferriss, Shawn Fanning, and Gary Vaynerchuk. Urban Airship, which was founded at about the same time as SimpleGeo, has itself raised $6 million to date from the Foundry Group and True Ventures to make it easier for mobile app developers to offer push notifications. As Mike points out, this is indeed a “soft landing” for SimpleGeo and most of the proposed cash will likely go towards paying off the last round of investors. It seems a low exit for a startup that was once very promising, especially as it is being led by current CEO and serial entrepreneur Jay Adelson. It also remains to be seen what Urban Airship will be doing with that terabyte-plus of data SimpleGeo has in stock. We’ll update as we learn more. Crunchbase SIMPLEGEO URBAN AIRSHIP Company: SimpleGeo Website: simplegeo.com Funding: $9.81M SimpleGeo provides a ready-to-use location infrastructure that makes it easy to ad location-aware features to applications. The company was founded in 2009 by Matt Galligan and Joe Stump. Learn more Company: Urban Airship Website: urbanairship.com Funding: $6.5M Urban Airship provides an easy, affordable way for mobile publishers and developers to deliver real-time push notifications and in-app purchase content to their app users on multiple platforms. Urban Airship provides a scalable infrastructure and easy-to-integrate tools that solve two main problems for app publishers: keeping their apps in use and earning recurring revenue from their apps. Push notifications keep uses engaged, enhance the app brand and connect with mobile devices, even when the app is not open. In-app purchase... Learn more